Underpowered
by recodan
Summary: Naruto minus the Kyuubi. He's got a different history too. Read it and weep.
1. Chapter 1

" Heh heh heh. It's all over, Naruto."

Despite his fatigue, Naruto jumped at the voice of his teacher. He looked up and found the chunnin standing over him, panting for breath.

" Heh." laughed Naruto, rubbing the back of his head. " Ya got me, sensei. I only had time to learn one jutsu. So, do I pass?"

" Huh?" said Iruka, confused. _He just….confessed?_

" Mizuki-sensei told me that if I stole the scroll and learned a jutsu, you'd pass me! I even made two of the paper seals so I could use for ya!" Naruto said proudly. Iruka's senses instantly sharpened, just in time to detect the kunai approaching. He managed to push Naruto out of the way but was hit, crumpling back into the small shack by the clearing.

" Heh. How stupid." chortled Mizuki.

" You….Mizuki, why?" gasped Iruka as he pulled a kunai from his leg.

" To serve my master." said Mizuki. " He wants the scroll, and I found a way to get it without being blamed. I kill Naruto, hide his body, and take the scroll, leaving everyone to think he stole it so he could follow in his fathers footsteps."

" Mizuki, don't!" warned Iruka. With a sneer Mizuki grabbed one of the two Fuuma shuriken he had brought and hurled it. Naruto panicked as the weapon spun towards him. Just before it struck, however, he felt himself knocked to the ground.

When he looked up, Iruka was standing over him, the weapon lodged deep in his back.

" Iruka, your such a fool." said Mizuki, leaping from the tree. " Saving Naruto by sacrificing yourself? I'd have thought you, of all people, wouldn't mind his death."

" Mizuki, don't tell him." said Iruka, struggling not to pass out.

" Oh, I think I should. Do you want to know why everyone hates you, Naruto? Why everyone in the village wants you to die? I'll tell you. Your father, Minato Namizaki.

" N-no." said Naruto, struggling to move away.

" It's true." said Mizuki. " The man who killed the Fourth Hokage….the man who lead a coup backed refugees from the Whirlpool country and killed hundreds of our village's ninja….the man who personally executed Iruka's parents when they were captured in the civil war….he was your father."

" Naruto…" gasped Iruka. " D-don't give him the scroll."

However, when Iruka looked in his students eyes, all he could see was betrayal. Naruto turned and ran into the forest, leaving them behind.

A short chase later and Naruto was hidden behind a tree. Iruka had just tricked Mizuki with a henge, but there was no way for Naruto to get away without being seen.

_I can't….I can't belive….._he thought, tears streaming down his face as he clutched the scroll tightly. _Why didn't they tell me? _

" Pathetic." said Mizuki, drawing the second fuuma shuriken. " Iruka, I can't tell you how long I've wanted to kill you."

" It doesn't matter if I die." said Iruka, sitting back against the tree. He was wounded badly, and even if he had wanted to he couldn't have won. " I helped Naruto escape you."

" And it'll be your fault when he learns his fathers jutsu and returns to the village for his revenge." said Mizuki. " You saw his eyes. He's been betrayed by the only people he's every trusted, tortured by the villagers for his fathers crimes….and if I don't kill him, someday he'll be back."

" You are right." sighed Iruka. " He was betrayed and tortured by the villagers. But he's not like Minato. He wants to be the Hokage and protect the village and has never dreamed of anything else. He's not Naruto Namizaki….he's Naruto Uzamaki."

" You may be right." chuckled Mizuki, hurling the shuriken. " But now you die!"

However, before it struck Naruto suddenly appeared in a flash of yellow light, vanishing a second later with Iruka.

" If you try and hurt Iruka-sensei…." growled Naruto, appearing in a branch above. " I'll kill you."

" Don't make my laugh." said Mizuki, facing Naruto.

" Then I won't!" shouted Naruto, leaping from the tree. From where Naruto had left him a short distance away, Iruka could see the fight. _But if there was that flash of light, that means….._

" Gah!" gasped Naruto as Mizuki kicked him in the gut, knocking him backwards. Naruto had been fighting furiously, but Mizuki was a much better hand to hand fighter.

" What a loser." said Mizuki, looking to Naruto. He didn't notice the paper with a intricate seal on it that Naruto had stuck to his back, the first step of the jutsu. " You can't even hope to beat me, but you keep trying."

" Shut up." said Naruto, getting to his feet. Mizuki watched in amusement as the boy charged again, prepared to block his attack.

But instead of simply charging at him, Naruto vanished, reappearing behind Mizuki. Before the chunnin could react Naruto delivered a vicious kick to his crotch. With a little squeak Mizuki toppled over to the ground.

" Whew." sighed Naruto, wiping the sweat from his brow. " Sensei, I did it!" he said, calling to Iruka, who was hobbling over.

" You did." said Iruka with a smile. " Naruto, I'm sorry, it's just that the Hokage ordered us to keep your father secret. If everyone in your generation knew about your father, there would be no way you could ever fit in."

" I think I get it." said Naruto, rubbing the back of his head.

" That jutsu…it was…"

" The Flying Thunder God technique? Yeah, it's really awesome! As long as I can put a seal somewhere, I can teleport anywhere! It's not even just moving really fast, like the replacement jutsu!"

" That jutsu was your fathers signature technique." said Iruka. " Nobody else has ever been able to use it."

" I'm not Minato." said Naruto crossly.

" I didn't say you were." apologized Iruka. " Telling you about it."

" I still think it's cool. You don't even need seals. Just channel your chakra and BAM, your there! Making all the paper seals is annoying, thought." said Naruto. " One use and they burn up."

" Naruto…." said Iruka. " I know I shouldn't do this, but you deserve to know. Your father may have been a traitor, but your mother was a hero to the village."

" You-you know who my mother was?" asked Naruto.

" I didn't know her, but I know the stories. Her name was Kushina Uzamaki. She was from the Whirlpool country, but she didn't want the war to happen. In fact, she led her clan against you father. You know the marks on your cheeks?"

" Yeah." said Naruto, brushing the black marks.

" They were her clans tattoos. They mark you as a Uzamaki. There aren't any left but you, though. They died to help save out village."

" Why did my dad try to take over?" asked Naruto, taking a seat by his recuperating teacher.

" When Arashi was named the Hokage, there were two people that also thought they should have been Hokage. You father was one, and when Arashi welcomed in the refugees from the Whirlpool village, when had been destroyed by a hurricane, he saw a chance. He married into one of their clans and began to gain favor with the refugee leaders, promising them power if they helped him take over. When your mother found out what he was planning she warned the Hokage, which was the only thing that saved us. The Uzamaki turned on their countrymen and helped us stop the coup."

" Who's the other?" asked Naruto.

" A very creepy man named Orochimaru, but that's a tale for another time." said Iruka with a laugh. _He never paid attention like this in class. I guess I should have been bleeding in class more often. _thought the chunnin. " Hey, close your eyes for a moment."

Naruto did. A moment later he felt something being tied around his head.

" There." said Iruka. Naruto realized his teacher had given him his forehead protector. " You look like a proper leaf ninja now."

" Iruka-sensei!" cried Naruto, hugging his teacher.

000000000

Let's-a break this down.

Naruto does not have the Kyuubi. However, he still had a unsually large chakra reserve. Let's just assume that it's a natural gift.

He can use the time/space jutsu, which I think is called the Flying Thunder God jutsu. It's basically a daes ex machina. He just can, even though it's unusually hard, like the Shadow Clones, for no reason.

In this version, Naruto doesn't have cosmic power like in the anime. He is still the bone head we love, but he doesn't have the Kyuubi's Super Badass Mode to help him win. And so, that is why this fic is called Underpowered. From here, things will change a bit.

See you in the for the first day of geninhood.

ROCK ON, PRINCESS.


	2. Chapter 2

" It's rather unfortunate things turned out like this." said the Hokage.

" I'm kinda happy it did." said Naruto. " Why didn't you want me to know?" The moment that Naruto had returned with Iruka they sought out the Hokage. Naruto had many questions for him.

" I assumed you'd be happier not knowing your father nearly destroyed the village." the Hokage said apologetically.

" I'm kinda angry about that, but it's also nice to know who my parents were." said Naruto, crossing his arms. " Having their names is better than having nothing."

" There is more than just their names." said the Hokage, becoming to his assistant. The man walked over and handed Naruto a musty looking box. " Just in case I needed to tell you someday, I saved a few things."

Naruto's heart began to beat very quickly as he looked at the box. Without hesitation he tore it open. There was a paper folder, a orange robe, and a strange looking kunai.

" The kunai was your fathers." explained the Hokage. " It is like the paper seals used in the teleportation jutsu, but they can be used unlimitedly since there is chakra embedded in the steel."

" Nice." said Naruto, looking at the weapon. They was unusually sharp and well balanced. " I'm still going to have to make the paper ones, though, and that takes like a hour."

" I think you might be more interested in the other things, thought." said the Hokage. " In the folder are your mother and father's medical and service records, as well as pictures of them."

Naruto couldn't tear open the folder quick enough. The first thing he saw was a photo of his mother, a red haired woman who shared his smile and cheek marks. He felt tears begin to form in his eyes as he stared at it.

Then he realized his fathers was not far away. He took it out and was chagrined to see he was the splitting image of the traitor. _That probably never helped me._ he thought.

" You've noticed your resemblance." said the Hokage gravely. " While you look like your father and share his goal of being the Hokage, your personality is more like your mothers. She was a bit of a jokester as well."

" I guess that explains why everyone hates me." said Naruto, looking up. " I look like the last guy who tried to become the Hokage, so everyone figures I'm going to pull a Minato, right?"

" Unfortunately so." said the Hokage with a nod.

" Crap." swore Naruto. " I've got to change my dream now."

" Oh?" said the Hokage. " To what?"

" Proving I'm more like my mother than my father." said Naruto, closing the folder.

" A good start may be putting on that cloak." said the Hokage. Naruto took out the orange garment and unfolded it. On the back was a red spiral design. " The Uzamaki traditionally wore robes like that. The spiral design is their family crest. The particular cloak belonged to your mother."

" N-no way." said Naruto, holding the cloak tightly. He threw it on and found it far to long for him. " I guess I'll have to…"

He trailed off as it suddenly shrunk to fit him perfectly.

" Oh, and I may not have mentioned yet, that one is special. It's the cloak the clan head wore. Embedded chakra in it changes it's size to fit you, it's fire proof, and if you channel a little chakra into it it repairs itself."

" Sweet!" said Naruto. He was examining the cloaks interior. There were a number of pockets that would be useful for storing weapons and paper seals, plus what ever else he needed. " I guess I don't need my old jacket anymore." he said, looking at the worn orange coat. He removed the cloak, took off the jacket, and out the cloak back on.

_I'm never taking this thing off._ he decided.

" And one last thing." said the Hokage. " We have here four scrolls containing the history of the Uzamaki. I believe you might be interested."

" Yeah!" said Naruto, taking them. " I probably won't read them for a while, but thanks!"

" You might want to run along now." said the old man with a smile. " You need to go get read for team assignments."

" Thanks! See ya!" said Naruto, racing out the door with his cloak flapping majestically behind him.

0000000

" I thought you failed." said Shikamaru, looking up as he walked in.

" Nope." said Naruto triumphantly, taking a seat and kicking his feet up.

" E-excuse me." said a quiet voice. He turned and saw Hinata, who was tapping her fingers and blushing. " I-I like y-your new jacket."

" Thanks, Hinata!" said Naruto loudly. The girl blushed and sank into her seat. _I like her. She's always nice._ thought Naruto. He looked around. Sakura wasn't there, so he couldn't go ask her on a date. He considered going and trying to talk to Hinata for a moment, but then Sasuke entered.

Naruto and Sasuke lost no time in beginning their daily glarefest. As the Uchiha found his seat he looked a Naruto's coat for a moment.

" What's with the getup?" he asked, raising a eyebrow.

" Oh? This?" said Naruto, looking down at the jacket. " This is just something my mom left me. Pretty cool, huh?"

Sasuke paled. Naruto and he were both orphans, which meant they knew the same pain of loneliness. This also had left them a number of dirty tricks to pull on each other when mocking each other. One of Sasuke's best jabs was the fact Naruto didn't even know who his parents were.

" I thought you didn't know who she was." said Sasuke, recovering.

" I didn't. Found out last night, thought. Apparently she was from the Whirlpool country."

" So she betrayed us? Classy." said Sasuke. " We offered them…"

" ACTUALLY, if you'd paid attention in class, the Uzamaki helped save the village from their countrymen." said Naruto, pretending to be smart for a moment.

" So, what was your mother anyways? A servant? A whore?"

" She was the clan leader." spat Naruto. " And don't ever say anything about her."

" Like you could make me." said Sasuke, smirking. _Got him._ thought Sasuke. _Now that he knows about his parents, I can hit him there too. He's not used to that._

" How's your brother?" Naruto asked cruelly. " Still alive? I really though that if you are such a genius, you'd have gotten back at him for killing your parents and mind raping you."

" BASTARD!" shouted Sasuke, leaping for Naruto. Naruto managed to grab Sasuke's arms but the two were knocked over, falling to the floor. People scattered as they rolled, but Sasuke managed to pin Naruto to the ground. However, Naruto was able to toss his teleportation kunai into the side of a desk before going down.

" Never fucking mention Itachi!" shouted Sasuke, punching Naruto in the face. He swung again but there was a flash of light and his fist struck the ground. Naruto had reappeared by the kunai and kicked Sasuke in the back of the head, knocking him into the desk.

" Itachi! Itachi!" shouted Naruto as Sasuke rolled to his feet. " Sasuke and Itachi, sitting in a tree!" he began to sing. With a snarl Sasuke charged again. Naruto blocked his punch and saw the kick coming. He focused his chakra for a moment, routed it though the seal on the kunai, and teleported again. He was about to catch Sasuke in a headlock when his body froze.

" Choji, get him!" shouted Shikamaru. Naruto noticed the boys shadow had spread across the floor to his, and as Shikamaru moved Naruto mimicked his actions. Sasuke began to swing at Naruto again, but Choji tackled him the ground.

And, anyone can tell you, having Choji tackle you stops you as well as any jutsu.

" Let me go!" shouted Naruto, trying to move. He couldn't even focus his chakra for a teleport.

" Get off me!" shouted Sasuke, pushing Choji off.

" Now look." sighed Shikamaru. " I know you two hate each other, but this is just too troublesome of a time for you two to fight. Wait until our teams have been assigned and then do whatever you want, but don't make this any harder than it needs to be."

" L-let Naruto-k-kun go!" said Hinata. Everyone turned to her in shock. She had spoken at normal volume, which was practically shouting for her.

" And get off of Sasuke-kun!" screeched Sakura, kicking Choji.

0000

Three hours later, they were still fuming. Sakura sighed. _Why'd Naruto have to be on our team? He's useless. He's just going to be in our way._

" I think we should prank sensei for being so late. " said Naruto, standing up.

**I love his pranks!**shouted Inner Sakura. _Quiet, you. _thought Sakura, frowning. _You keep quiet until we're fifteen._

" Naruto…." said Sakura with a sigh as he put the eraser in the door. " Our teachers a jounin. He won't fall for that."

" Let's just see." said Naruto, walking back to his seat. He took out his new kunai and began to fiddle with it.

" What's that?" asked Sakura, trying to make conversation.

" My dad's weapon." said Naruto, holding it up for them to see.

" What's the seal on it?" asked Sakura. " It doesn't look normal."

" It's not." said Naruto. " Its for use with a special jutsu."

" You mean that weird replacement technique you used this morning?" asked Sakura. Naruto had escaped her wrath twice in a flash of yellow light.

" Yep." replied Naruto.

" So what's the point?" said Sasuke. " It looked like the normal body flicker jutsu, but without a hand seal."

" This, Sasuke-chan, is a time and space manipulation technique." said Naruto in a haughty voice. " The body flicker technique used for the replacement jutsu uses chakra to make you move incredibly fast for a short period of time. My jutsu allows me to instantly teleport from one location to another without moving between the two points. I'd explain the rest, but you wouldn't understand."

Sasuke's face contorted with rage. Naruto had not only insulted him with a 'chan', but insulted his genius too?

" Naruto, how dare you!" shouted Sakura, bopping Naruto on the head. " Sasuke-kun would be way better at that that you if he tried!"

" So we heard about your mother." said Sasuke darkly, regaining Naruto's attention. " And debated her occupation."

" She was the clan leader!" shouted Naruto defensively. " The Hokage said so!"

" So was your father some sort of house husband?" asked Sasuke. " Some weakling that invented a jutsu that helps him run away?"

" No. He was the bastard that killed the Fourth Hokage." growled Naruto.

Needless to say, Sakura and Sasuke were stunned.

" I just found out last night." said Naruto angrily, continuing. " Yeah, it's real nice. Apparently, my dad decided to go psycho and try and take over the village, kill Iruka-sensei's parents, and kill half my mothers family. Oh, plus, I got to find out that he only banged her for political reasons."

" M-minato Namikaze?" said Sakura shakily.

" Yep." said Naruto. " I even got to see a picture of him. I look just like him. It makes me pretty sick."

" I-I didn't…"

" I didn't know either, remember?" said Naruto, cutting Sakura off.

" Why are you using his jutsu then?" asked Sasuke with a scowl. _Naruto….he's going to be trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if he became a traitor like his father._

" Because it's useful." growled Naruto. " And…"

" Can that wait a few minutes?"

They looked up to find a man with white hair standing by them, holding a chalk eraser in one hands.

0000

" Well then." said Kakashi. " Now that we're here, let's do introductions."

" I'm Naruto Uzamaki!" shouted Naruto. Kakashi cringed, glad he had taken them outside. _Sensei's old boy….I hope I can keep him from going down his fathers path. He's wearing a Uzamaki cloak, though. That's a good sign._

" I like ramen!" continued Naruto. " I don't like stuck up jerks like Sasuke-teme and people who call me a loser. My dream…"

" Is to be the next Hokage." sighed Sasuke and Sakura in unison. _We've heard it before._

" …is to restart my mothers clan and prove I'm not my father." said Naruto, giving them an annoyed look.

It was as if hell had frozen over.

" W-what?" said Sakura in shock. Finding out Naruto's father was the evilest man in Kohona's history wasn't nearly as shocking as him giving up on being Hokage.

" Everyone hates me because they think I'm like my father. He wanted to be Hokage. So, I stop trying to be Hokage, people might hate me less." said Naruto, explaining his plan. " And I also want to honor my mom and make sure there's more Uzamaki. I figure I'll go and found a new clan once I'm a famous ninja!"

" Your going to need to find a girl willing to put up with you." said Sasuke.

" Well….." said Naruto, thinking. " Yeah, that's true. But that's not for a while. And plus, I haven't read the history scrolls yet., so I don't even know too much about the Uzamaki.

" Are there a lot of scrolls?" asked Sakura.

" Like a hundred, and that's just for the main house." sighed Naruto, lying immensely.

" If we can continue," said Kakashi, glad his mask was hiding his smile. _Good kid you got there, Kushina. _

After Sasuke and Sakura went, things were rather awkward.

" I must admit," said Kakashi, scratching his chin. " You three have rather…erotic goals."

" What?" said Naruto, eyes bugging. Sure, Sasuke wanted to re-found his clan, and Naruto wanted to found a new clan, and Sakura was lusting after Sasuke…

" Oh." said Sakura, blushing.

" Well, I was planning on having you three do survival training tomorrow," said Kakashi, taking out a orange book. " But, I have to cover sex ed for you three at some point. Do you like color pictures?"

" We'll do the survival training!" said Sakura and Naruto quickly.

" Ah, okay." said Kakashi, sounding disappointed. " Be at training ground seven at seven. Don't be late." He gave them a little smirk and vanished with a poof.

" That was close." said Naruto, blushing.

" Y-yeah." said Sakura, also blushing. " S-Sasuke-kun, I didn't mean things like that. I mean, I know that will happen when we get married…"

" Hn." said Sasuke, cutting her off with a grunt. The genin sat for a moment and then, unable to talk from embarrassment, left.

0000000

Needless to say, when Kakashi was late again, they were not amused.

" Sorry, sorry." apologized Kakashi as Sakura and Naruto glared at him. " I forgot which training ground we were at."

" Liar." grumbled Sakura.

" So, today we're going to do some special training." said Kakashi, taking out two bells. " And if you can't handle it, you go back to the academy."

" What?" shouted Naruto. " That's stupid! We passed the genin exam!"

" Which means you have the skills to be a genin." said Kakashi. " This test sees if you have what it truly takes to be a ninja. You must get one of these bells from me or you fail."

" There's only two bells." Sakura pointed out.

" Correct. Someone has to fail." said Kakashi, tying them to his belt. The genin tensed, steeling themselves. " Begin."

In a instant Sakura and Sasuke disappeared, but Naruto elected to charge straight for Kakashi, his special kunai drawn.

" I'm not going to lose!" he shouted, lunging for Kakashi. The jounin sidestepped the attack with ease. Naruto spun and attacked again, but Kakashi was too quick.

" Stealth is a ninja's friend." said Kakashi calmly as he took out a book and began to read.

" I can beat you right here!" shouted Naruto. Kakashi sighed as he kicked the boy in the stomach, knocking him into the lake nearby.

_Damn._ thought Naruto as he began to sink. _He's way too good. This would be a good time to be smart. If I had Sakura-chan helping me she could think of something. But I'm not going to give up!_

Kakashi had begun to look around, trying to find his other genin. He had a good guess where they were hidden, but he couldn't pinpoint them. _Those two are pretty good at least._ he thought. He turned his attention back to Naruto when he heard a splash.

_Woah!_ thought Naruto, watching as the kunai sped towards his teacher. _Just add a little chakra and that thing flies fast!_ Kakashi, however, was still too quick and ducked. Unfortunately, that was what Naruto wanted. There was a yellow flash of light as he appeared behind Kakashi.

" Got you!" he shouted, reaching for the bell.

_He can use sensei's time/space jutsu?_ thought Kakashi, his normal eye going wide. _What a kid!_ He almost felt like letting Naruto have one of the bells, but he couldn't do that. He flipped backwards, landing on Naruto's back and causing him to fall to the ground.

"Ooomp!" exhaled Naruto as he struck the dirt.

" Pretty good. I-"

Kakashi was cut off when Naruto vanished again. He looked to the kunai which had sailed onwards and stuck a tree, but the boy wasn't by it. _He must have used a paper seal. I didn't think he'd taken any time to prepare. He might be better than I thought._

0000

" What the hell?" shouted Sakura as Naruto appeared besides her.

" Ow." said Naruto, rolling onto his back.

" Go away!" she said crossly. " You'll ruin my hiding place."

" Sorry, Sakura-chan." said Naruto, crawling off into the underbrush. _Sensei knocked the wind out of me. I need to rest for a moment. _he thought.

" Baka." mumbled Sakura, looking back into the clearing. Kakashi was still standing there, reading his book. _How am I supposed to get the bell from sensei? He just beat Naruto with ease, and my hand to hand skills are only as good at that idiots. This isn't going to be…_

At that moment, Sasuke stumbled from the woods near her. Sakura felt her blood running cold when she saw he had a large number of kunai stuck in him and was bleeding heavily.

"S-sakura…" he gasped. " Help me…"

She gave a scream and fainted.

" Sakura-chan!" shouted Naruto, racing over. He found the kunochi out cold, but he couldn't see any injuries on her. _What happened? _he thought, looking around. He could see Kakashi had finally left the clearing, so he began to look around for the jounin, wary of attack. _I've only got two more paper seals._ he thought. _I'm glad I put one on Sakura's belt pouch when she wasn't looking, but I need to be more careful with them._

Then, he saw a burst of flames a short distance away. Sasuke and Kakashi were locked in combat, with the young Uchiha doing quite well. Kakashi was being pressed in hand to hand, though he was not going for serious injury like Sasuke was, and had to resort to ninjutsu.

" Looks like your not different them the others after all." said Kakashi as Sasuke sank into the ground. He looked up as Naruto leapt from a high branch towards him. " Good that you tried to use surprise this time." said Kakashi as he delivered a kick to Naruto's midsection, launching him into the air. However, Naruto had expected that and had been holding the teleportation kunai loosely. As his momentum changed to up, the kunai continued going down.

Sasuke blinked as the blade landed inches from his face.

There was a flash of light as Naruto teleported underneath Kakashi. He tried to bring his fist up in a uppercut, but Kakashi deflected his fist and knocked Naruto away. Sasuke was struggling hard to get out of ground and beginning to loosen the dirt, but it was too late. Kakashi vanished with a poof.

" Damn." swore Naruto, picking himself out of the dirt. He teetered to the side, catching himself on a tree. " Ouch. That took a lot of chakra."

" And you failed." said Sasuke, freeing an arm from the dirt.

" You did too." Naruto snapped back.

" But I managed to touch one of the bells."

" Ooo, look at the great Sasuke. He's so proud of touching sensei's bells."

The air was soon filled with obscenities.

000000

" Well, you gave it your all." said Kakashi, handing Sasuke and Naruto the bento boxes. " And you have until evening."

" What the hell!" said Sakura, struggling under the ropes. " Why am I tied to this thing?"

" Because you did the worst." said Kakashi, a hint of disappointment in his voice. " While Naruto and Sasuke did get beaten up…"

Kakashi glanced over to the two boys. Sasuke had a few welts he was sure he hadn't caused and Naruto had a black eye and burnt hair that hadn't been there before.

" …by me and each other," he continued. " at least they didn't scream and faint from a simple genjutsu. You're a smart girl, Sakura, and you are a genjutsu type ninja. You should have been able to figure it out."

" Look, showing me Sasuke-kun dying isn't fair!" shouted Sakura. " In a real fight-"

" The enemy would know." sighed Kakashi. " You constantly fawn over him, ignoring your training. I've seen the reports. If you'd applied yourself, you'd be as good as Sasuke."

Sasuke, who had been eating a piece of sushi, nearly choked.

" Really? Wow, Sakura-chan is awesome!" said Naruto, giving her a smile.

" Now, I'm going to go do a quick errand. Don't give anything to Sakura." said Kakashi, turning and walking away.

" Don't worry, I'll be fine." she said with a fake laugh. " I'm on a diet any-"

She was cut off by a large rumble from her stomach. _I didn't eat breakfast OR dinner, and I had a half salad for lunch yesterday._ she thought, cringing.

" I'm not really hungry, Sakura-chan." said Naruto. " Do you want my lunch?"

" Naruto…." said Kakashi, who was roughly ten feet away. " If your going to disobey me, wait until I'm gone. If you give your lunch to Sakura, I'll send you back to the academy."

" Well….." said Naruto, thinking deep. " She sounds pretty hungry. What if I trade places with her on the post? That way nothings different."

_D-did he just say what I think he said?_ thought Kakashi turning. _I might get to pass these guys if the other two join in! Come on, you losers! Say something!_

" Naruto, I'm fine." said Sakura with a thankful look. " I don't want you to get in trouble."

" Thanks, Sakura-chan!" said Naruto with a big smile. " Hey, after we pass this afternoon, want to go on a date? I'll buy dinner at the ramen place!"

" No, Naruto." said Sakura, sweat dropping.

_Say it, you emo bastard!_ thought Kakashi, staring at Sasuke. _Hell, just talk! Talk! Talk! Talk!_

Sasuke, unfortunately, continued to eat in silence. Kakashi sighed as he turned to walk away.

" Hey, Sasuke." said Naruto, changing subjects. " You're the last Uchiha, right?"

" Other than my brother, and I am going to kill him." said Sasuke in a sour tone.

" Sweet." said Naruto, taking a bite of rice. " Since my clans going to be really important, it'll be nice to have the head of the Uchiha owe me a lot of favors."

" W-what?" sputtered Sasuke.

" Well, I figure I'm going to save your live a bunch of times." said Naruto in a matter of fact tone. " So you'll owe me."

" Naruto, Sasuke-kun won't need you to save him!" screeched Sakura.

" But we're a team." said Naruto, looking annoyed. " We work together and watch each others backs. Sasuke always tries to look cool and never pays attention to anyone else, so I bet you and me wind up saving his live like a billion times."

" I won't make a mistake and need saving." said Sasuke angrily.

" Yeah you will, teme." growled Naruto. " Your not perfect."

" Na-"

" Sasuke-kun…" said Sakura softly. " He has a point. That's why they put us on these teams, so we'll make sure the others stay alive."

Sasuke looked like he had been slapped. _Sakura? Agreeing with Naruto? Dammit, their right too. _

" Fine, your right." he sighed, conceding the point. " But what I'm saying is that since I'm the strongest on the team, I'll probably have to watch out for you."

" Strongest?" laughed Naruto. " Come on, teme! I kicked your ass!"

" I set you on fire!"

" You mom's on fire!"

" SHUT IT!" shouted Sakura. " Both of you drive me nuts! Your both the exact same, and it pisses me off! Quit picking fights with each other and eat your goddamn rice!"

Naruto and Sasuke blinked at her in unison.

" How are we the same?" said Sasuke in a low, dangerous tone.

" How? How?" said Sakura with a laugh. " Both of you are orphans, for one. And there's the fact that you both think you have to become the greatest ninja alive. Your both completive jerks who can't stand people being better than them and demand attention!"

" Then why won't you go on a date with me, but you would with him?" asked Naruto, pointing to Sasuke.

" Because I'm a idiot, alright?" snarled Sakura. " Sasuke's just prettier than you, got it? And while he does his little 'oh look at me, I'm so tragic' thing all the time for attention, at least he doesn't make as much noise as you!"

Kakashi had stayed firmly put. There was nothing as fun as watching a kunochi vent at someone else.

" Shut up." said Sasuke in a huff, turning away.

" Don't tell Sakura-chan to shut up!"

" Be quiet, you idiot! Just because I'm mad at Sasuke-kun doesn't mean that I'll let you be rude to him!"

" Sakura-channnn….."

" Wow." said Kakashi. " There's no way I'm ever letting you three pass." he said as he walked back over. " Naruto has the teamwork I want, but Sasuke, what the hey? Naruto and Sakura are literally begging you to be a decent human being and your turning them down!"

" I'm an avenger!" shouted Sasuke. " I-"

His sentence was cut short by a bitch slap across the face.

" Shut up." said Kakashi, rubbing his hand. " You think you're the only one to lose people important to them? So your family was murdered, big deal. Almost a fourth of the ninja in the village are orphans. And at least their death wasn't your fault."

" What would you know?" shouted Sasuke. " How would you like it if I killed someone important to….."

He trailed off as Kakashi revealed his Sharingan, which was spinning quickly. He looked into Sasuke's eyes and the boy went silent.

" What are you doing?" said Sakura in alarm.

" I'm showing him what I've had to go though." said Kakashi, sounding bored. " Finding my father after he committed suicide when I was four, causing the death of my best friend when I was fourteen, watching the woman I loved die in my arms, and seeing my teacher go insane and murder hundreds. I've been though a lot."

He pulled his head away and Sasuke blinked. He was sweating and short of breath.

" H-how long…."

" It took about twenty seconds. You experienced about two weeks." said Kakashi. " Being a ninja means having people you love die. Believe it or not, I'm lucky. There's some people I know who actually had to kill their loved ones themselves."

" Sasuke-kun, are you all right?" said Sakura, voice laden with worry.

" You look like crap." said Naruto, examining his rival. " Was it like watching a movie or what?"

Sasuke looked to them in horror.

" T-t-they look like…."

" Obito and Rin." said Kakashi. " Yes, and your rather like me. Funny, isn't it? I wonder how you would have felt after training with them for a few years, only to get to watch them die. You'd be surprised how much you'd miss them, even if you don't like them now."

" Wait, who do I look like?" asked Naruto.

" Obito Uchiha. He saved my live by pushing me out from under a falling rock." said Kakashi in a monotone. " It crushed him. That was the second time he saved my life in only a few minutes."

" I never remind people of anyone good." grumbled Naruto.

" Well, see you next year." said Kakashi, turning and walking away. " I'm off to tell them you failed."

" Wait!" shouted Sasuke. Kakashi turned and looked at him. " Don't fail them because of me."

" It's too late for that." said Kakashi. " Your just grasping at straws."

" Fail me. Don't fail them." said Sasuke. " I failed this test, they didn't."

" Too late." said Kakashi, walking away.

" I guess you can come down now." said Naruto, slicing though the ropes that held Sakura back.

" Thanks, Naruto." said Sakura with a smile. " Sasuke-kun, don't worry. It's not-"

" It is my fault." he said, standing up.

" Hey, teme, shut up." said Naruto. " We failed once. Next time we pass the exam, we're gonna kick ass!"

" That's not the point!" shouted Sasuke. " I failed! Me, a Uchiha! We never fail! I'm the brother of the greatest progidy my clan ever known and I'm a idiot! It took me four years to pass the genin exam, only to fail later! I can't even activate my Sharingan yet, which my brother did when he was eight!"

" Sasuke-kun, stop it!" said Sakura. " You're a genius!"

" By normal standards. By my clans standards I'm nothing." said Sasuke.

" So you're a loser?" said Naruto with a laugh. " Great!"

" What?" said Sasuke, confused.

" Come on, Sasuke." said Naruto. " You said it yourself. You're a loser. Your brothers the genius who everything comes easy to. You have to work hard to get better. That's why you'll kick his ass."

" That doesn't make sense."

" Yeah it does." said Naruto. " Name one movie where the hard working guy doesn't beat the natural."

" Movies don't count."

" Name one manga."

" Manga doesn't count."

" Fine then! The Forth Hokage!" said Naruto. " My dad was always hailed as a genius, you know that. We read about him in history class. But Arashi was made the Hokage. He didn't have genius or a bloodline, he just worked hard. And when they fought, it took ten ninja or backup for Minato to beat the Fourth."

" How do you know all this?" asked Sakura.

" The Fourth is my hero. Duh." said Naruto. " Wait, sorry, Sakura-chan. I didn't mean to be rude."

" You almost have a point." said Sasuke, putting his hands in his pockets. " Which is surprising, considering you're a idiot. I guess I'll just have to train harder for next year."

" Hell yeah." said Naruto. " And next time we'll…."

" We won't be on the same team." said Sakura. " They'll put us on different teams."

" That's too bad." said Sasuke, soundly slightly sad. " I'd like to be able to make up for getting us failed."

" You could buy me ramen…." said Naruto, drooling.

" I'll do that." said Kakashi, appearing in a blast of smoke.

" What? I thought you were leaving?" said Naruto in alarm.

" I was, but your little melodrama was interesting to listen to." said Kakashi, smiling widely. " So, I figured, what the hell. I'll let you three pretend to be ninja for a little longer."

" Y-you mean…" said Sakua, smiling widely. " We passed?"

" Barely, and only due to pity." said Kakashi.

" That still counts!" said Naruto, jumping into the air. Sasuke sighed in relief.

" But don't think your out of the woods." said Kakashi. " I still think you three suck. You each have skill deficiencies and the only thing that brought you together here for the sappy little moment is me mind raping Sasuke and failing you. If you three screw up, I'm sending you back."

"…"

_Why does everyone say 'mind rape'?_ thought Sasuke with a scowl as Naruto and Sakura began to laugh at him.

0000000

See you in the wave country!

ROCK ON, PRINCESS.


	3. Chapter 3

" Finally!" shouted Naruto, striding though the village gates. " A real mission!"

" You guys better be good." grumbled Tazuna. " I paid for real ninja, not a bunch of kids."

" Don't worry." said Sakura, who was walking besides him. " Kaka-sensei is really good. You won't have any problem."

" Plus," said Kakashi, who was reading as he walked. " This is a C-Rank mission. There's no real chance of combat."

" But there is a chance!" said Naruto, looking around. Sasuke just huffed.

The past three weeks had been awesome. While Kakashi wouldn't train then in any new ninjutsu or genjutsu yet, he'd been working on their taijutsu. Naruto knew he had gotten better, and even if Sasuke was still light years ahead of him, he was feeling good.

Naruto's teleportation jutsu was the envy of his team. When he sparred with Sasuke or Sakura, he could always get a few hits in using it to teleport around, avoiding attack with ease. They were able to use replacements, but it just wasn't the same. High speed movement against instantaneous travel always ended in instant's favor. He tried not to use paper seals wastefully, as he only had the patience to make one or two a day, but he ended up needing to. He had five for this mission, as well as the teleportation kunai.

However, he was pretty jealous of his teammates, too.

Sakura, after the shouting match, had immediately begun to work on some new tricks. Rather than going the chakra route, she had decided to improve her already first rate trap skills. Snares, tripwires, spring loaded senbon launchers…..it wasn't much fun. And that was discounting the exploding tags that were her favorite. Since this was supposed to be a easy mission she didn't go overboard, but she'd brought a trap making kit, extra kunai, and two dozen exploding tags.

Needless to say, in this universe, she'll be more useful.

Sasuke, Naruto grudgingly had to admit, was better than him. The Uchiha was faster, stronger, and more skilled, had two powerful attack techniques, and was very hard to surprise. Naruto's biggest advantage was the fact that even the great Sasuke got tired before he did.

" Hey, Sakura-chan." said Naruto, breaking the silence as they walked. " Did you bring anything to eat?"

" Of course!" she replied, sounding insulted.

" Good. I just realized I don't have any way to cook my ramen out here." said Naruto, sounding sad. " I might have to borrow something."

" Naruto, why-"

" I mean, your on a diet anyways, right? So you won't eat it all, right?" he said, not noticing her anger.

" Naruto, you are responsible or your own supplies. " said Kakashi. " If you don't have anything, you'll have to find it yourself."

" Why don't you just teleport back to the village?" said Sasuke, walking around a puddle. _It hasn't rained….why would that be there?_ he thought.

" Well, I could. I've got a few seals on the ramen stand for when I'm in the village." said Naruto with a sigh. " But I don't think I could go that far. I've got enough chakra for it, I just don't have enough control."

" What happened if you lose control?" asked Sakura curiously.

" I have no clue." said Naruto. " But since I'm teleporting my body, I don't want to know. I'm trying to stick to jumps I can do. That way, I practice…."

He was cut off as two cloaked men leapt from the puddle. The genin watched in horror as a strange bladed chain wrapped around Kakashi and sliced him to pieces. The two ninja then turned their attention to the old man.

" Sensei!" shouted Sakura, drawing a weapon. " They got sensei!"

" No way!" said Naruto, wide eyed.

The two ninja ran forwards towards them, spreading out so the chain was stretched between them. Sasuke lunged forward and delivered a kick to the one of the left, knocking him back. Sakura leapt in front of the dumbstruck Tazuna, acting as the final defense. Naruto, unfortunately, recovered too slowly and the other ninja had already swung a clawed fist at him.

With no time left, he drew his special kunai and parried.

Naruto was knocked back by the older mans strength, but managed to avoid being hit. He was glad to see that he'd done something, however, as there was a chunk cut from the gauntlet and the ninja's hand was bleeding. With a snarl the ninja leapt at him to finish the job, but Naruto flicked the kunai into the air above them. As the water ninja jabbed his bladed hand forwards Naruto vanished, re-appearing and grabbing the kunai. He landed on the mans back and kicked him forward.

The sound the mans head made as he hit a tree was delightful.

" Woah!" said Naruto, falling to the ground. He looked up and saw that the other ninja on the ground besided a triumphant looking Sasuke. Sakura looked relieved, the old man looked shocked….and Kakashi was standing there?

" Wait, sensei, your alive!" said Naruto, running over.

" I am." he said with a smile. " I used a replacement jutsu to escape. I was going to stay out of the fight long enough to see who their target was, but you two handled it pretty well."

" And if we couldn't have, Sakura-chan was there to finish them!" said Naruto, ever the flirt.

" Why did you need to know their target, sensei?" asked Sakura, focusing on the task at hand.

" Because if they were going for us, it would only be ninja from different villages fighting." said Kakashi, glancing at the guilty looking Tazuna. " But from their plan of attack, they were planning on killing him. You've got some explaining to do."

" I suppose I do." said Tazuna, gulping nervously. Having bodyguards like these was nice, unless you had deceived them.

00000000

" Why is it so foggy?"

" We're on the ocean, Naruto." said Sakura with a sigh. The small boat they had chartered was slowly making it's way towards the fog obscured Wave country in the distance. " You get fog there a lot."

" Weird." said Naruto, pulling his cloak close. _Man, this thing is warm! Thanks, mom._ he thought.

"We're almost there." said the rower in a whisper. " Once we hit the shore, you people get off as quick as you can."

" Why?" asked Naruto.

" The man I mentioned, Gato, has a stranglehold on our country." said Tazuna. " He's got bands of thugs that go around beating people up and he's willing to have his enemies, like me, assassinated. It's a dangerous time."

" Then we'll just kick some ass." said Naruto, looking forward as the shore came into view.

The walk though the village was disturbing. The genin could tell that once there had been more people in the village, since there were a number of empty houses, and they could also see it had once been prospers. However, now the building were all boarded up and in poor repair. The old man led them towards a road that went to his house, which was in a rather rural area.

" Why would someone do that?" asked Naruto, looking back. " I mean, make everyone poor on purpose."

" He's trying to take over." said Tazuna grimly. " Once he owns everything and everyone, he'll be able to do whatever he likes. I hear he's planning to have the forests cut down to sell though his lumber companies and then he'll strip mine the place. After that, he'll just abandon us. Most of his interests lie in other ventures. We're not even a major investment."

Meanwhile, Sakura was deep in thought.

_I've got to do something next time._ she decided. _Sasuke-kun and Naruto already proved they were good, but I didn't-_

She snapped out of it when she heard a rustle in the bushes. She spun on the spot instantly, hurling a kunai.

" Sakura, be careful." said Kakashi, surprised by her actions. " Kunai are sharp."

" I heard something." she said, dashing over. She moved the bushes aside….to reveal a white rabbit impaled with a kunai.

" You killed a bunny!" said Naruto in shock.

" I didn't mean to!" said Sakura, horrified by her actions. The rabbit had, tragically, been quite cute, and any girl that kills something cute will obviously be quite upset. " I thought I heard someone moving!"

" Are you sure you trust her with those things?" grumbled Tazuna. " Does a girl have the sense to be a ninja?"

Sakura spun, throwing another. It whizzed above Tazuna head, a explosive tag trailing behind.

" Sakura-!"

" Got him!" shouted Sakura as the kunai stuck the tree she had seen the figure hiding in. There was a explosion and splinters began to rain down on them.

" What?" said Kakashi, looking to the explosion."

" Sensei, there was someone. They used a replacement jutsu to switch with the rabbit. I heard him in the tree." she said.

" I don't see anyone." said Naruto, looking over. " Did you blow him up, Sakura-chan?"

" Down!" shouted Sasuke. Everyone hit the ground and a second later a gigantic sword flew over them. They looked up as a tall, muscular man with a bandaged face appeared and caught the weapon, standing calmly a short distance from them.

" Good job, everyone." said Kakashi, standing up.

" Who's this guy?" asked Naruto.

" A very dangerous opponent." said Kakashi. " Zabuza, Demon of the Mist."

" I'm honored that's you'd know me, Kakashi of the Sharingan." said Zabuza, hefting his sword. " I'll give you two choices. Die by my sword or give me the old man."

" That's not really a choice." said Sakura.

" You three, get back." said Kakashi, ushering them off. " This guy is way above your level. I can take him, though."

" Sensei, we can-"

" No, Naruto." said the jounin, cutting of Naruto as he revealed his Sharingan. " He's way above you. Take the old man and run."

" Run where?" said Zabuza, appearing in the middle of their group as mist began to fill the air. He swung the sword towards the old man, but Kakashi kicked it to the side. Zabuza flipped the blade into the air and launched into a vicious taijutsu combo against Kakashi as the genin moved Tazuna to safety.

Zabuza caught the sword as it fell and slashed at Kakashi viciously. The silver haired jounin ducked and rolled to the side, drawing several shuriken and throwing them. Zabuza held his sword sideways like a shield and deflected them, then settled into a relaxed pose.

" As I guessed, you are excellent." said Zabuza. " With your eye you can see though my every attack."

" Indeed." said Kakashi, standing up straight. " It's useless to keep fighting me."

" It is while your eye is useful." said Zabuza. " But what if we remove sight from the equation?"

He performed a hand seal and vanished into the thickening mist.

" Not good." said Kakashi, backing towards the genin.

" Where'd he go?" asked Naruto, looking around.

" Zabuza is a ex-Mist ANBU." said Kakashi. " He's a master of the silent kill. He attacks in the mist, using only sound to locate us, and kills us before he realize he's there."

" We need to get out of the mist." said Sasuke. " Or get rid of it."

" Correct. But I doubt he'll let us run." said Kakashi. " If you'll do the honors…"

" Katon: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" said Sasuke, forming two hand seals and breathing in. He exhaled a gigantic fireball which blasted a hole in the fog bank. Unfortunately, the mist began to fill in immediately.

" It was worth a shot, but I thought that might happen." said Kakashi. " A master of the Hidden Mist jutsu can make it so the mist continues to form. We won't be able to get out."

" What can we do, then?" asked Sakura.

" Die." said Zabuza's voice. Naruto realized that a hand with a kunai in it had hooked around his neck. He would have died right there had Sakura not kicked him in the head, knocking him over just so that the kunai slashed over his head. Zabuza swore and vanished again.

" Naruto, are you all right?" asked Sakura, helping him up.

" Yeah." he said woozily. " Thanks, Sakura-chan. Your really good at hitting me."

" We need to get rid of all the mist at once." said Kakashi. " I've got a jutsu that might work, but I'd be useless afterwards. Sasuke, can you make a larger fireball?"

" Sensei, let me." said Sakura, drawing out a pack of kunai with explosive tags wrapped around the handles. Kakashi nodded and she threw them in several directions. She formed the detonation seal and the area around them exploded, dispersing the mist instantly. " That's most of what I had." she said, looking around. The small woodland area they were in now appeared desolate and was burning. However, they could see Zabuza watching them, looking annoyed.

" Those students of yours are bothering me, Kakashi." he said. " I'm trying to fight you, but they are in the way. I suppose it's only fair I bring out my student."

Suddenly, a woman in a green robe and white mask landed besides them.

" And who's that?" asked Naruto, palming a paper seal and drawing his teleportation kunai.

" No clue." said Kakashi. " My guess is another missing-nin that joined up with him."

" No." said Zabuza with a laugh. " Just something I found. Haku, kill the brats. I'll take on Kakashi."

" Yes, Master Zabuza." said the woman.

" All right." said Naruto, sticking a paper seal to Sakura and Sasuke's backs. " We get to fight too."

" Be careful." said Kakashi, looking towards Zabuza. " I won't be able to help you. Remember, team work."

" I know." said Naruto, smiling as the green robed woman walked towards them. There was a blur as Kakashi and Zabuza vanished.

" Hello." said the woman in a soft voice. " My name is Haku. I am sorry, but I will have to kill you."

" Bring it!" shouted Naruto, charging. He leapt in a flying kick but the woman blocked with lightning speed, launching him back.

" I will make this quick and try to make it painless." said Haku, forming a hand seal. Suddenly, the vapors left in the air condensed into ice and formed the shape of shuriken. The flew toward the genin, bur Sasuke performed the Shadow Shuriken jutsu and threw two handfuls, which multiplied in midair and blocked the ice projectiles. A number also flew towards Haku, but the ninja vanished in a blur of speed, lunging towards them. Sasuke managed to block at the last second, but was thrown to the side. Sakura tried stabbing Haku with a kunai but the speedy ninja parried with a senbon which was then flicked into Sakura's shoulder. The pink haired girl cried in pain as it buried itself in deep.

" Bastard!" shouted Naruto, leaping and punching at Haku. "Don't hit-!"

BAM.

A powerful punch connected with Naruto's face sending him sprawling. Sasuke leapt to his feet as Sakura dodged away, already gathering chakra. He fired another fireball at Haku, but it was intercepted by a wall of ice which suddenly rose from the moist ground.

" Dammit!" Sasuke swore. " She's too good!"

" She…?" said Haku. " Oh, I see. It might not serve any purpose telling you, but I'm a boy."

_No way!_ thought Sakura, pulling the senbon from her shoulder. _His butt looks better than Ino's!_

" You three are quite good." said Haku, drawing a handful of senbon. " In time, I imagine you could have become very strong. But this ends now."

Haku threw the senbon as hard as he could. The needles flew towards Sakura and Sasuke so fast that, even prepared as they were, they didn't have time to dodge. Before they struck, however, there was a flash of light in front of Sakura. Naruto appeared, blocking the senbon with his body. A second later he vanished again, appearing by Sasuke and pushing the Uchiha out of the way.

" Naruto!" shouted Sasuke, getting to his feet. The blonde boy didn't answer. He was standing still with dozens of needles sticking out of his torso. Sakura threw her last explosive kunai at Haku, who dodged away from the explosion with ease.

" Ha." chuckled Naruto, blood dripping from his mouth. " Hey, Sasuke. Guess what? I saved your life."

Slowly, the blonde fell to the side. Sakura managed to catch him at the last second.

" Naruto!" she cried, shaking him. " Don't pass out! Naruto!"

" You are a very precious people to him, aren't you?" asked Haku, drawing another handful of senbon as he looked to Sasuke. " He gave his life to save you so willingly. I wish I could have known him."

Sasuke's eyes began to burn.

" But you are still going to die." said Haku, hurling the needles at Sasuke.

It his eyes were made of molten steel. The pain was so immense, so overwhelming he should have passed out, but for some reason it also forced him on. Sasuke watched as the blue glow of chakra began to appear, the movement of the needles slowed to a crawl, and every movement became predictable. He knew which way each cinder from the burnins trees would go, he knew exactly how Haku was shifting his stance….

He knew exactly how to deflect every senbon from hitting him and Sakura.

" How?" said Haku in alarm as Sasuke move in a blur, countering every attack.

" My Sharingan have activated." said Sasuke, looking up. His eyes had gone red with a single tomoe appearing, spinning rapidly. " My power, the power of the greatest of all ninja clans. Sakura, get Naruto and Tazuna out of here. I'll take him."

" Right!" said Sakura, picking up Naruto's limp body.

" This way!" said the old bridge builder, racing into the woods.

Haku charged Sasuke, but it just wasn't the same. Sasuke had been able to match the boys speed fairly well before, but now it wasn't even a significant effort. Every punch, kick, and stab was parried and countered, and after ten second's he had beaten Haku back.

Unfortunately for him, Haku had a lot more tricks left.

The shuriken made of ice formed again, attacking from every direction and forcing Sasuke to splint his attention. While Sasuke dodged the weapons, Haku formed another hand seal, several mirrors made of ice appearing. He leapt into one and began his ultimate attack.

While Sasuke could see the senbon coming, it was just too much. Countless needles from every one of the mirrors fired at him while the green blur that was Haku dashed around, propelled by his mirrors at the speed of light. For every ten needles he dodged one hit, and every time he tried to escape the mirrors range Haku would force him back.

_How can his speed have increased?_ thought Sasuke, watching as his opponent launched from another mirror. _This has to be some sort of bloodline. There's no normal jutsu that could do this._

He would have soon lost had Kakashi and Zabuza's fight not spilled out of the woods towards them.

Zabuza was slashing frantically at Kakashi, who's hand was covered with a crackling energy. Kakashi had a few cuts on him, but it looked like Zabuza had been bitten a number of times. The mist ninja looked weak from blood loss and as Kakashi closed in for the kill, it was obvious who was going to win.

Until a ice mirror appeared besides Zabuza and Haku leapt out. As Kakashi jabbed his attack forward Haku interposed himself between his master and Kakashi, and the energy blade struck him straight in the chest. Kakashi dodged back as the boy fell to the ground.

" Haku!" said Zabuza in alarm, looking down as the boy began to spit up blood. While the attack had hit him, it had missed his heart and only pierced a lung. " You win this round." said Zabuza, scooping up the wounded boy and vanishing in a puff of smoke.

" Sensei!" yelled Sasuke, racing over. " He was just too fast. I couldn't stop him." he said.

" I understand." said Kakashi, covering his Sharingan. " Zabuza told me. The boy had a first rate bloodline. Are you okay?"

" My wounds aren't bad." said Sasuke, looking at the senbon. None of the hits were too dangerous, but they did impede his movement. Then he remembered Naruto. " Sensei, Naruto got hit. I think he might die."

" Where is he?" said Kakashi in alarm.

" Follow me." said Sasuke, running into the woods in the direction Sakura and Tazuna had run. _Dammit, Naruto, you'd better be alive!_ he thought.

00000000

This wasn't so bad.

It was soft like a nice bed…..he could feel the sun on his face…..

Naruto had to admit, being dead wasn't nearly as unpleasant as everyone had said. Sure, he could feel all the wounds from the needles, but at least he was comfortable. At least, he was until he realized he was thirsty.

" Hey!" he said irately, sitting up. " Can I get some water?"

" Naruto!"

" Sakura-chan!" he said in alarm, opening his eyes. He was in a small, well kept bedroom. Sakura was standing beside him. " No! You died? But I saved you!"

" I didn't die, Naruto." she said, hugging him.

" Then why are you in heaven?" said Naruto, confused. " Oh, I get it! Your not the real Sakura!"

" What?" said Sakura, confused herself.

" Wow. This is nice." he said, looking around. " My own personal Sakura-chan….a soft mattress….I wonder if my moms here. Hey, Sakura-chan, could I have some water?"

" What's going on?" said Kakashi, walking into the room. He looked tired and slumped down in a chair.

" I get my own personal Kaka-sensei?" said Naruto. He then smiled wide. " Awesome! I figured I'd have to stop training after I died!"

" What are you talking about, baka?" asked Sasuke from the doorway.

" What the hell?" said Naruto in alarm. " Why the hell are you here?"

" Because I heard you shouting." said Sasuke, looking bored. " You've been unconscious since yesterday."

" Wait, I'm not dead?"

" No, Naruto." said Sakura with a sigh.

" Yes!" said Naruto, throwing his hands over his head.

" You've got me to thank for that." said Kakashi. " I had to spend a few hours patching you up. I'm glad you were willing to sacrifice yourself to save your teammates, but try not to do that, okay?"

" Okay." said Naruto, rubbing the back of his head. " So, did we win?"

" It was a draw." sighed Kakashi. " But Zabuza and Haku were in pretty bad shape when they left. And to tell you the truth, I'm not doing to well at the moment. I overused by Sharingan, so my body was pretty messed up before I had to use a lot of chakra to heal you. I don't think I'll be able to do much more than rest for a few days."

" Hello." said a woman at the door. She was dressed in plain clothes, but looked quite pretty. " I heard you asking for some water?" she asked, walking over with a tray. " I also brought some food. It's ramen, but you should eat up. It's good for you."

" I don't know who you are, but I'd like to marry you." said Naruto, staring at her wonder.

" Thanks, but no thanks." said the woman with a smile as she set the tray down for Naruto, who immediately began to scarf the food down. " My name is Tsunami. I'm the daughter of Tazuna and your host."

" Thanks for the ramen, then." said Naruto with a smile.

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Meanwhile, Zabuza was bandaging his arms. The dogs had done quite a number on him, but he hadn't been able to tend to himself until Haku was stable. The frail looking boy was resting in the bed, sleeping soundly.

" I see you lost." said Gato, walking into the room with his two guards. " Pathetic. I'd expected you to do begRRAKK!"

Zabuza, in a foul mood, had thrown a kunai into his employers neck.

" You two." said Zabuza, standing up and towering over the guards. His bloody, scar covered body was quite intimidating and he was radiating all the killer intent he could. " Tell the others. I'm in charge now."

" Y-you bastard!" said one of the thugs, shaking as he held his sword. " W-with Gato dead…"

" Nothings changed." said Zabuza. " We'll still be taking over this country. We'll just be doing so faster. Search the villages and bring every doctor you can here. Anyone who disobeys me will die. You do a good job, however, I'll pay you more than Gato ever would. Got it?"

" Y-yes, Zabuza-sama." said one of the thugs, running from the room.

_The next time we fight, Kakashi,_ thought Zabuza, gazing from the window into the forests. _I won't lose. I'll kill your students while you watch helplessly, then cut your damn head off. _

For good measure, he kicked Gato's lifeless corpse.

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Different, Eh? How will things turn out? Find out next time on the conclusion of the Wave Country Arc!

Rock on, princess.


	4. Chapter 4

EDIT: CHANGED THE AFTER FIGHT SCENE. HAPPY, ZABUZA AND HAKU FANS?

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" This is a pretty bad situation." said Kakashi. He was seated with his team and Tazuna's family in the beach home. Sakura and Tazuna had been to the market that day to buy food and had discovered that Gato was dead by Zabuza's hand, and now the considerable amount of fighters that Gato had hired working for him.

" Yeah." said Tazuna with a nod. " None of my workers are returning, and I'm afraid they have a good reason for that. If they've got to watch out for a jounin rank ninja and all of Gato's men…."

" We're going to have to take out Zabuza." said Kakashi. " But I'll need a few more days to rest. Unfortunately, that means Zabuza and Haku will have more time to heal as well. We're going to make up for this by doing some special training."

" Really?" said Naruto. He was always excited for training.

" Will it make much of a difference?" asked Sakura. " A few days isn't much time."

" This isn't normal training." said Kakashi, standing up. " By the time it's finished, you'll be several times stronger than you are now."

" Let's get going!" said Naruto, throwing on his Uzamaki cloak and racing outside.

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" This looks like a good spot." said Kakashi, looking around the clearing. " It's got some good trees and it's a long way from the village. We won't run into anyone out here."

" So what are we doing?" asked Naruto, quivering enthusiastically.

" Tree climbing." said Kakashi.

" We already know how to climb trees." said Sakura.

" Not like this." said Kakashi, walking calmly up the side of a tree and shocking his students. " It's a exercise in how to focus your chakra to a specific point in your body, in this case, your feet."

" Awesome!" shouted Naruto.

" How will that help in a fight?" asked Sasuke, sounding a little unconvinced.

" Well, more mobility is always useful." said Kakashi, walking back down. " But focusing one's chakra is a very useful skill. Focus chakra into your legs and release it all at once for a burst of speed. Focus chakra into your fist and release it as you punch for a more powerful hit. There's a lot of things you can do."

" So, how does it work?" asked Sakura, looking at one of the trees.

" Focus your chakra into your feet and have it extend out a short distance so that it's pulling you onto the tree." said Kakashi. " Use a kunai to mark how high you get."

" Yaaaaa!" shouted Naruto, racing at the nearest tree. He leapt up and placed a foot on the tree, which immediately splintered as he hit it. He fell several feet to the ground with a thud.

" Oh, and if you focus too much chakra, that happens." said Kakashi. " Too much, you break the tree. Too little you fall off."

" Time to try it then." said Sakura. She raced over to a tree and leapt up, running twenty steps up the side of the tree on her first try. She slashed the bark with a kunai as she lost control halfway up, then flipped backwards and landed gracefully.

_It's not very hard, then._ thought Sasuke, racing towards his tree. He, however, only got four steps before the bark broke off on his foot and he fell.

" It looks like Sakura's the best at chakra control for the moment." said Kakashi, giving her a grin. " I want you all to keep practicing. I'll be over here, reading."

The genin took to their teachers words and immediately set back to work.

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As the sun set, all the genin were panting for breath.

Sakura had mastered tree climbing after a hour, making it to the top every time. Kakashi had set her to practicing water walking, which was more difficult, but she managed to get it after a while. After that all she could do was repetition so she could build up her chakra reserves.

Naruto and Sasuke, however, were having more trouble.

Sasuke was able to get fourteen steps up the tree while Naruto was still stuck at six. They were making progress, but it was incredibly slow compared to Sakura's. Needless to say, Sasuke was angry about this.

" That's enough for today." said Kakashi with a yawn. He'd had a nice, relaxing day. The genin followed him back to the house, where they ate ravenously and fell asleep in an instant.

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"Why am I not getting this?" panted Sasuke, looking at the tree. They had been training for four days and he had barely moved from his marks from the first day. Naruto was beginning to creep up on him and Sakura wasn't even there anymore. Kakashi had said she couldn't get any better at chakra control, so he was teaching her the technique to make explosive tags.

The boys were very jealous, since Kakashi had told them he didn't think they had the control to make the tags for a long time. Everyone with a Y chromosome love's explosions.

" Like I know." grumbled Naruto, picking himself out of the dirt. " Sakura-chan's advice is helping a little, but it's still hard."

" Hey." said Sasuke, blushing and looking away. He didn't like asking for help. " Um…what did Sakura tell you?"

" She said there was some sort of spiritual side to chakra and that you had to calm yourself." said Naruto. " I've tried, but that's not all of it. It's like you have to have the right amounts of calmness and drive at the same time. It's like trying not to become to excited someone buys you ramen but still acting really happy."

" Of course you mention ramen." said Sasuke, looking to the tree. _It's worth a shot._ he thought, racing towards the tree. He tried to relax and force himself on at the same time as he took the first, then second, then third step.

When he lost control on the twenty second step, he marked the spot before flipping off the tree.

" What the hell?" shouted Naruto. " How'd you do that?"

" I did what Sakura suggested." said Sasuke with a smirk.

" Dang." said Naruto. " I guess I shouldn't have told you."

" Thanks, though."

Naruto swiveled on the spot.

" Did you just thank me?" he asked incredulously.

" Yeah." said Sasuke, looking away. " Don't get used to it."

" Ha!" laughed Naruto. " I knew saving your life was worth it!"

Sasuke's eye twitched. _I'm going to hear about that for a long time._

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" We've pretty much got it." said Sasuke, taking a seat at the table and reaching for some sushi.

" That's good. How far up?" asked Kakashi.

" I can usually get to about twenty five and Sasuke hit thirty once." said Naruto though a mouthful of ramen.

" That's pretty good." said Kakashi. " It usually takes a month or two to get that good. You've done pretty well."

" Hey, Sakura-chan, how's the explosive tag thing coming?" Naruto asked, looking to his female teammate. Her hair was slightly singed and she had a few burns.

" Okay." she said proudly. " I've managed to make a few that would pass inspection. The others aren't so good. Sometimes they explode too soon or not at all."

" And don't forget that one time." said Kakashi with a smirk.

" What happened?" asked Naruto curiously.

" If you ever tell anyone, I will kill you." Sakura hissed though her teeth at Kakashi. Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other in surprise.

" Don't worry, I won't." said Kakashi with a laugh. " So, now that I've had time to recover, it's time to deal with Zabuza. Tomorrow we're going to scout out around the village and find out where Gato's men are coming from. I'll bet you that's where we find Zabuza and Haku."

" I'm looking forward to a rematch." said Naruto, cracking his knuckles.

" Given what I know of Haku and Zabuza, I think it would be best if I fought Haku while you three kept Zabuza occupied." said Kakashi. " Don't do anything stupid against him. I'll finish off Haku as fast as I can, then come take on Zabuza. He's a slower attacker, so you should have no trouble using your Sharingan to dodge." he said with a look to Sasuke.

" Fine by me." said Sasuke. " But if it came to it, I think me and Sakura could beat Haku."

" R-really?" said Sakura, heart fluttering with hope.

" I was able to counter all his senbon." said Sasuke. " I just needed a little extra help. Throwing an explosive tag or two would be all you'd need to do."

" Hey, each of you take one of these." said Naruto, taking out his three remaining paper seals and handing them to his teammates. " Just in case I need to teleport to you."

" Don't be jumping in front of any more attacks." said Kakashi.

" I won't. Don't worry." said Naruto with a laugh.

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" There he is." said Naruto.

" Again?" said Sakura, covering her eyes. " How much can one guy pee?"

" He might want to see a doctor." said Naruto. " That can't be healthy."

" Peeing that much?"

" No, the rash."

Finding Zabuza's hideout hadn't been hard. Gato's men were run of the mill mercenaries, not ninja, so they weren't too hard to follow. Naruto and Sakura were on watch on one side of the building while Sasuke and Kakashi explored the perimeter. Unfortunately, the dock was on that side, and there was one rather burly guard who had a rather small bladder.

He'd been by twelve times to relieve himself.

" I'm back." said Kakashi, inching though the brush. " Ooh. That guy needs to see a doctor."

_This can't get much more awkward, at least._ thought Sakura, cringing.

" It looks like this is the best entry point." said Sasuke, sneaking up. " Ouch. That guy needs to go see a doctor."

" So, here's the plan." said Kakashi as Sakura sweat dropped. " We'll move in silently and begin to look around for Zabuza and Haku. We'll split into teams. Sasuke and Naruto, me and Sakura."

" Right." said Naruto with a nod.

" If you run into them, decide what the best course of action is." said Kakashi, drawing a kunai. " If it's Zabuza, back off. If it's Haku, decide if you can take him. You got pretty close last time. Naruto, take out the guard."

Without hesitation Naruto threw his teleportation kunai. It stuck the wall behind the urinating man who didn't have time to react before Naruto appeared and knocked him out.

" What are you doing?" whispered Sasuke as he arrived. Sakura and Kakashi were checking the door to make sure nobody else was there.

" Leaving him a note." said Naruto, who was writing on the mans face with a marker. " He needs to get that rash looked at. He might lose 'em."

Sasuke nodded. Even if the man was his enemy, he didn't deserve that.

" Let's go." said Kakashi. The two groups split up and began to search the compound.

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" Not here." whispered Naruto, looking though the crack of a door.

" We've searched most of this place." said Sasuke, creeping down the hall. " Either they aren't here or we're in an trap."

For twenty minutes they had been moving though the strange building, looking for anyone. Except for a guard or two the building was empty, seeming like it had been emptied recently. As Naruto and Sasuke turned a corner, they found Kakashi and Sakura waiting.

" No luck?" asked Kakashi.

" None." replied Sasuke.

" Then they aren't here." said Kakashi. " We found room with a bed and some bloody bandages, but that's it."

" So where are they?" asked Naruto.

" I think we should head back to the village." said Kakashi. " I have a feeling they might be causing some trouble there."

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Twenty minutes later they had returned. Dawn was breaking as they crept though the forests. The village looked fine and to their dismay, there was no sign of the water ninja.

" This doesn't make sense." said Kakashi. " From what I know of him, Zabuza's not the type to run. And he's got Gato's men backing him up. In a fight, he'd have the advantage. So where is he?"

" Help! Help!"

" That's Tazuna's grandson!" said Sakura in alarm, noticing the small boy running though the village. A few people were awoken by his cries and came to see what was the matter.

" Gato sent his men to kill grandpa and mom!" the small boy shouted.

In a blur the leaf ninja were besides him.

" How many?" asked Kakashi, kneeling to face the Inari.

" Ten. And there was this girl in a green robe commanding them." said the terrified kid. " They tied up grandpa and mom."

" Damn." swore Kakashi. " You three, stay here." he commanded. " Naruto, watch for a flare in the sky. That means I'll need you to come in for backup."

" Why are we staying here?" asked Naruto.

" Because Zabuza's probably going to attack here too." said Kakashi. " Gato has more hired killers than that. If they attack here I'll need you to inform me. Saving Tazuna is the priority, but if the village is attacked…"

" Got it." said Naruto. Kakashi dashed off at full speed, vanishing into the trees moments later.

" I knew that would work." said Inari. Before anyone could ask what, there was a puff of smoke and Zabuza appeared in the boys place. Naruto drew his kunai, but didn't do it fast enough and was knocked into the side of a building by a mighty kick. Sakura and Sasuke leapt several paces away, flanking Zabuza and drawing their weapons.

" Kakashi's going to be in for a surprise." chuckled Zabuza. " His brat kids are going to be long dead by the time he returns."

" Naruto, warn-"

" He won't be able to." said a quiet voice. Haku had appeared and had a knife to Naruto's throat and twisted one of Naruto's arms behind his back. " No matter how fast he is, he can't escape this."

" Heh. You guy's think I'm fast?" said Naruto with a smirk.

" You demonstrated a jutsu that allowed you to move even faster than I can." said Haku, not releasing his grip. " It was quite impressive, but we were ready -"

He trailed off as Naruto vanished.

" What the hell?" said Zabuza, drawing his sword.

" Naruto's even faster than you thought." said Sasuke with a smirk. " Now!"

In unison Sakura and Sasuke launched shuriken from both sides. Zabuza was forced to escape with a replacement.

" We need to get them away from the village!" shouted Sakura as a few civilians began to look out.

" Get to the bridge!" shouted Sasuke, already focusing chakra. Sakura did the same and they sped off. Zabuza and Haku, however, were close behind.

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" Sensei!" shouted Naruto as he appeared.

However, he doubted anyone heard it. Tazuna's small beach house was a war zone, with Kakashi fighting off scores of Gato's men at once.

" Naruto!" shouted Kakashi when he saw the noticeable boy. " It's a trap!"

" I know!" said Naruto, parrying a slash with a sword and stabbing with his kunai. " Zabuza and Haku are attacking Sakura and Sasuke!" he said as he launched one of the men back with a flying kick. They were good fighters, but they weren't ninja.

" They'll hold them off for a moment!" said Kakashi. " But they'll need me to fight them! Can you handle this?"

Naruto looked at the forty thugs who had surrounded them, swords drawn.

" Yeah!" he said confidently. " Get going!"

" See ya!" said Kakashi, dashing off into the trees.

" Where the hell's he-"

The thug was cut off as two explosive kunai whizzed though the trees, a parting gift from Kakashi. As the thugs scattered, Naruto smirked.

This was going to be awesome.

He leapt in a flying kick at the nearest thug as he threw his kunai at another, who deflected the blade. As the first thug fell, Naruto teleported. He caught the man with a sweep kick and uppercut, knocking him down.

The rest of Gato's men took him a lot more serious after that.

Naruto focused a burst of chakra as they charged, trying to overwhelm him, and leapt into the air. As they looked up he teleported back down and delivered several fast punches to one's stomach while he was distracted, then grabbed his kunai from the sand.

This was going to be a long fight.

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Sakura was aware she was doing a lot of damage to the precious bridge.

She wasn't really fussed.

" Detonate!" she said, forming the seal. Zabuza dodged the explosion and swung his sword, but she escaped the hit with a replacement, leaving behind a log covered in explosive tags. Zabuza swore as he leapt away from the second explosion.

Haku and Sasuke had continued their fight from before. Haku was having trouble this time, as the would he had sustained was serious, but Sasuke was still forced onto the defensive. While he could parry every senbon, the ice jutsu were starting to annoy him.

He launched another fireball as Haku melted into a mirror. No matter what he used, Haku was always safe in the mirrors. It didn't make sense to him. Fire was supposed to melt ice, right?

" Detonate!" said Sakura. There was an explosion as a chunk of the bridge vaporized. Zabuza, unfortunately, dodged that one as well.

" Your running out of those." he said, sounding amused. " It's rather interesting. You can count your life span in how many of those you have left."

" Sakura, down!" shouted Sasuke. Sakura hit the deck as a flurry of ice shuriken shot past her. Haku had taken the opportunity to try and kill her and would have succeeded if not for Sasuke's warning. Sakura rolled to the side as Zabuza brought his sword down, shattering the stone in a mighty blow.

_Their just too good._ thought Sakura, drawing her last two explosive kunai. _I don't have any chakra left and Sasuke's got hit a few times….If Naruto doesn't get back with sensei soon, we're going to die. _

" Yo." said Kakashi, appearing in a puff of smoke. " Zabuza, nice to see you. Have you been giving my cute students a workout?"

" Shut up!" shouted Zabuza, hurling the blade. Kakashi flipped over and charged, a Chidori charging in his hand.

" Sakura, go help Sasuke!" shouted Kakashi.

" Right!" said Sakura, turning towards her crush and Sasuke's fight. Sasuke was having trouble dodging due to a senbon in his leg, so Sakura threw a explosive kunai at the mirror housing Haku. It exploded, not destroying the mirror but obstructing Haku's view long enough for Sasuke to remove the senbon.

" Stay back." said Sasuke, standing up. " You won't be fast enough to dodge his attacks."

" Okay, Sasuke-kun!" said Sakura, keeping her distance.

" I had planned on taking out Haku first." said Kakashi, ducking a shuriken. Zabuza landed by his sword and picked it up with one hand. " But I guess it's politer to take you out first. You did want to get me back, right?"

" And I will." said Zabuza, racing forwards and slashing. Kakashi dodged the attack and lunched with the Chidori, stabbing towards Zabuza, but the mist ninja performed a replacement jutsu with a water clone just in time.

" I really hate that eye of yours." said Zabuza, forming a hand seal. " I hate using this jutsu. Water Dragon technique!" he shouted as a wave rose from the side of the bridge and launched itself at Kakashi. Kakashi dodged away from the main impact, but the bridge was flooded with water.

To Kakashi's horror, as he landed Zabuza morphed out of the water and put out his hand. The water flowed upwards and formed a sphere around Kakashi, who found himself unable to move.

" Got-!"

Before Zabuza could claim victory, Kakashi caught him with the Sharingan. It whirled quickly as he hypnotized the mist ninja.

Haku was just starting to make progress against Sasuke again when he saw Zabuza draw a kunai. However, the fact that Zabuza was staring Kakashi in the eye was what caught his alarm. _He never looks people in the eye as he kills them!_ thought Haku in alarm. _He must have gotten trapped by the Sharingan!_

And to his horror, he saw Zabuza begin to stab towards his own throat with the weapon. Thanks to the speed granted by the ice mirror technique it seemed tortuously slow.

Without a thought to his personal safety, he launched himself from the mirror.

A moment before Zabuza killed himself Haku caught his arm and forced him away. This snapped Zabuza out of the hypnosis, but also broke the water prison. Haku spun to face Kakashi as the Copy Ninja charged another Chidori and jabbed forward. Haku barely had enough time to form a ice mirror in front of him to block the attack.

Unfortunately, the legendary lightning jutsu cut straight though.

Haku had never seen his mirror broken and had not expected to be hit. Already weak from exertion and his half healed chest wound, he barely avoided being killed by the attack, moving back just enough that Kakashi was only able to touch his fingertips to Haku. This was enough, however, to slash open Haku's skin.

" Dammit!" shouted Zabuza as Haku fell back. He began to form the seals for his most powerful jutsu, but Kakashi was facing him, already mimic his actions.

" Super Waterfall technique!" said the two jounin in unison. Water rose from the ocean and struck the bridge, completely flooding it. Both leaf and mist ninja were knocked backwards and drug along the stonework, but they managed to avoid being pulled over.

" Sasuke-kun!" said Sakura as the flow abated, standing up first. " Are y-"

She was cut off as a senbon struck her in the heart.

" Sakura!" shouted Sasuke as she fell backwards. Kakashi was already on his feet and facing Zabuza. Sasuke didn't get to her in time and she hit the ground hard, her body like a rag doll.

" Good shot, Haku." said Zabuza , struggling to stand. He had hit a large stone hard, however, and his left arm was bent and broken. " Dammit, I'm not going to be able to continue." he said.

" I can take them, master Zabuza." said Haku, who had frozen his wounds so they'd stop bleeding. It wasn't a good solution, but it was fast.

" Sasuke, is she o…kay…." said Kakashi, trailing off as he collapsed. _No! I overused the Sharingan!_ he thought, struggling to move. He barely had the energy to stay conscious, however.

" We will finish this here." said Haku, looking to Sasuke, who was knelt over Sakura's motionless body. " I've taken your precious person, so face me and fight properly."

" She wasn't precious to me." said Sasuke, standing up. He didn't face Haku, however. " I hated her."

" How odd." said Haku, drawing more of his infinite needles. " I thought you were her friend."

" I spent most of the last few years wishing she were gone." said Sasuke, voice quivering with rage. " She annoyed me and bothered me all the time. Other than my brother, she is my least favorite person in the world. But you know why I'm angry? She was the only one who stayed, no matter how often I told her to go away. All the other girls that pestered me would get over me and find a boyfriend or give up, but she stayed. She even knew that I wasn't everything she wanted and thought I was a jerk, unlike the others. She was the only person I could count on to never go away."

He turned to Haku. Blood was pouring from his eyes, which were open unnaturally wide, all three tomoe fully visible and quickly spinning. He had fully activated his Sharingan.

" I live for one reason." said Sasuke, staring at Haku without blinking. The effeminate boy could sense the hatred and killing intent emanating from Sasuke. " To kill my brother. It's been a horrible existence, because I'm too weak to ever accomplish that goal. You took Sakura, the one person who made it bearable, away."

Haku threw the senbon and formed a mirror, but Sasuke moved in a blur, deflecting the projectiles and slamming a vicious punch into Haku's stomach. The ice ninja was vomiting before he hit the ground. Sasuke was on top of him in a instant, pinning him and furiously beating Haku. He wasn't truly aware how deformed the boys face had become until Zabuza raced over, fighting his pain as he attempted to stop Sasuke.

Unfortunately, Sasuke caught Zabuza's gaze and was paralyzed by the hypnotic eyes. Sasuke could feel unparallel agony in his eyes, telling him he had pushed the limits of his eyes, and found himself unable to do much more than hold Zabuza in place as their wills fought.

Unfortunately, Haku seized the moment to throw Sasuke from him. The young Uchiha landed a short distance away, feeling his Sharingan deactivate. He didn't have the chakra to continue to use them, and as he stood and faced Haku, he knew he was at the end of his endurance.

Haku was not doing much better. One eye was already swollen shut and blood poured from his nose. Zabuza collapsed again, drained from the mental battle against the Sharingan.

Haku suddenly coughed, spitting out blood. Sasuke tried to attack during this opening, but all he was able to do was fall to his knees. Both sides had fought themselves to exaustion and the only thing that the last two conscious combatants could do was glare at each other.

" Man, we lucked out." said a voice. Sasuke looked up weakly. Two samurai were looking down at him and Haku, smiling viciously.

" Ge-get master Zabuza to safety." Haku gurgled though a busted lip.

" Why?" laughed one of the men. " There's a bounty on you and him. We might as well kill you two and claim it. And we'll do the leaf ninja just to be safe."

Sasuke tried to get to his feet as one of the men walked over towards him, katana drawn.

" Bye." said the samurai, swinging his blade. Before it hit, however, there was a flash of yellow light. Naruto appeared and cut the sword in two with his kunai. He had been slashed and stabbed a number of times, but the wounds didn't look too serious.

Before the samurai could react Naruto uppercutted him, knocking him out. The other was able to attack once before Naruto kicked him off the bridge.

" Saved you again, teme." panted Naruto. " But this one doesn't' count."

" Naruto." gasped Sakura. " Haku and Zabuza are weak, sensei's down, and Sakura's dead."

" What?" said Naruto in alarm. " S-sakura-chan…"

" What?" croaked a voice. Sasuke and Naruto looked over and saw Sakura, who was standing weakly.

" Y-your alive." said Sasuke in shock.

" Sensei saved me with a medical jutsu. The senbon hit me in the heart, but barely pierced in." she said. Kakashi walked forward, but he was obviously weary. " He said had he been a few seconds late I would have died."

" We lost again." said Zabuza, sitting up. " Make it quick, then."

" I don't think we'll be killing you." said Kakashi with a groan of pain. " Since we captured you…."

He was cut off as two masked mist ANBU landed besides Zabuza and Haku, weapons drawn. They made an attempt to capture the two missing-nin, but Zabuza and Haku's bodies both turned to water and they vanished.

" Damn." said one ot the ANBU before vanishing.

the tired leaf ninja sat against the side of the bridge. Sakura pulled out her medical kit and began to treat Sasuke's wounds.

" Zabuza and Haku were ninja that abandoned their village, Naruto." said Kakashi, relaxing his sore muscles. " The ANBU from their village would have been tracking them, waiting for a chance to kill them. Villages don't allow traitors who know their jutsu to survive for long. We've probably weakened Zabuza and Haku to a point that they can be beaten. You never know with ninja of their rank, though."

" Oh." said Naruto, obviously shaken. " Hey, I saved Tazuna and his family."

" That's good." said Kakashi with a smile. He could see the villagers walking onto the ruined bridge and the old man running towards them.

" Did you win?" asked Tazuna he skidded to a halt.

" We did." said Kakashi, not even sitting up.

" Good!" said the old man irately. " You've done enough damage to the bridge we won't be able to finish it for a few more months!"

" Well, Gato and his men are gone." said Kakashi. " So things should go better, right?"

" I guess they will." said Tazuna. " You all look like crap."

" We'd appreciate if you could give us somewhere to heal up." said Kakashi.

" We'd be glad to." said Tsunami, walking forwards. " I've sent for someone to come with stretchers."

" Thanks." said Kakashi. " I'm going to pass out now."

He did just that.

" Hey, I can still help." said Naruto, getting to his feet. " What can I do?"

" Just relax." said Tazuna. " We'll handle things for a little while."

" I think I've got this one on." said Sakura, finishing the pressure bandage she was applying to a stab wound on Sasuke's arm. " Hold still while I put salve on your leg, Sasuke-kun."

_She's still here._ he thought, cracking a slight smile. _Annoying, fussy, and here. _

" Sakura?" he said quietly. _I owe her this._ he thought.

" Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

" When we get back to the village, let's go out to dinner or something."

" Sasuke-kun!" said Sakura, hugging him tightly.

_Damn teme._ thought Naruto, watching sourly. _She was finally starting to notice me._

0000000

The Hokage was, understandably, a little annoyed when Kakashi's team returned from their mission two weeks late, half dead and looking proud of themselves.

" Hey old man!" said Naruto, waving as he entered.

" I assume you have a good reason?" asked the Hokage dryly.

" We had to help rescue a cat from a tree." said Kakashi. " It clawed us a bit."

"…"

" Fine. No jokes."

Kakashi and the genin exchanged looks and launched into the full story of the mission.

00000000000000000000000000000000

Rock on, princess.


	5. Chapter 5

" So, Sakura-chan." said Naruto, breaking the long silence. Kakashi, as always, was late, leaving the genin alone on the bridge. " How'd the date with Sasuke go?"

" It's was incredibly disappointing!" said Sakura, swooning while Sasuke rolled his eyes. " We went to a cheap restaurant, I had to pay for my own food, and he didn't talk!"

" But….you seem happy." said Naruto, confused.

" Because it was a date with Sasuke-kun!" said Sakura, throwing her hands into the air. " I don't care that he told me it was a one time thing and will never happen again, I can die happy now!"

Naruto looked to Sasuke, who just shrugged. _Girls get more confusing every day._ thought Naruto, sweat dropping. _Maybe the Hokage was onto something when he suggested those dating sims. _

" Yo." said Kakashi, poofing onto the bridge.

" Your late!" shouted Naruto and Sasuke, pointing at him accusingly.

" Sorry. There was a special meeting for jounin teachers." said Kakashi, taking out several pieces of paperwork. " I had to get the forms you need to fill out to enter the chunnin exam."

" Lia…r…..really?" said Naruto, blinking in surprise.

" Really." said Kakashi. " We have three days left until the exam, so you three need to get to work. Getting your equipment ready, making sure your in good health, making a will….."

" You better be joking." said Sakura, taking the form.

00000

He was not.

The next three days were difficult. Team Sevens entry was a last minute affair and they had to scramble t prepare. Sakura had to read up on some new traps and make more explosive tags, Naruto had to make a lot of paper seals, and Sasuke had to do his hair.

Kakashi, to their annoyance, wouldn't tell them what the exam entailed. The final, they knew, was a stadium fight, but before that there were several tests. He had them do tactical drills, read ninja theory books, make sure their estate was in order, relax at the local hot springs, and eat a high fiber diet.

Naruto would not admit the last item on that list had done him wonders.

Finally, the day of the exam came. They met up in front of the academy at eight o'clock, giving them plenty of time to find the room to turn in their forms.

" I hoped I wouldn't be back here for a while." said Naruto as they walked inside.

" It's not so bad." said Sakura, cinching up her pink backpack. " I hear some years they take you to this place called to forest of death."

" That sounds funner." said Naruto. " Were probably going to have to sit though another of Iruka-sensei's lectures."

As they turned around a corner, they found themselves at the back of a large crowd. Two older boys were blocking the door to a classroom. A strange looking boy in a green spandex suit tried to get past them, but was knocked back and caught by his pink shirted teammate.

" You wimps ought to go home." said one of the boys with a sneer. " You'll get killed in the exam."

" You are not allowed to stop us." said Spandex Lad, standing up.

" Release the genjutsu." said Sasuke gruffly as his team walked up.

" You figured it out?" said one of the boys with a smirk. Suddenly the sign changed, revealing it was the wrong room. " Well, you should…still…."

He trailed off as he turned to Naruto.

" You should still quit." said the boy, recovering. Every looked from Naruto to him in confusion.

" Like hell!" said Naruto loudly. " So scram!"

" You trying to pick a fight with me?" said the boy with the bandaged nose.

" If you want it." said Naruto. He flicked his wrist and the teleportation kunai emerged from his sleeve. Bandage Nose sneered and drew his weapon, leaping towards Naruto. A moment before the two collided, however, there was a blur of green and Spandex Lad was standing between them, holding their arms.

" The exam has not begun." said Spandex Lad, holding them apart. " We -"

" Lee, back off!" said Bunned Hair Girl. Spandex Lad looked confused, but he released Naruto and Bandage Nose and move away. " I saw the blonde kids weapon. We need to move."

" Wait, what?" said Naruto, confused.

" I'm a weapons expert. I know what that kunai is." said Bunned Hair Girl as she and her teammates walked off. " You keep your distance." The two older genin were now gone as well.

All eyes were now on Naruto. Sakura and Sasuke had never appreciated before quite how vicious the strange kunai looked, with the extra two prongs, polished golden edges, and the strange black seal. Coupled with the odd cloak, it made him look a lot more professional than most of the genin as he walked though the crowd, which parted for him.

" I was looking forward to beating that guy up too." said Naruto disapointedly, putting the kunai away as he got to his team. He hadn't noticed anyone's gaze, since he was Naruto, so he was quite calm. " What was with that girl?"

" Let's go, Naruto." said Sasuke, turning and walking. _That weapon was the Yellow Flashes….so she probably knows it's abilities._ thought Sasuke. _She'll be warned about the teleportation jutsu and know that it's a chakra weapon that's sharper and stronger than a normal blade. If we get into a fight with her group, Naruto will be at a disadvantage from the start. _

" Yo." said Kakashi, waving and surprising them. He was standing in front of the door to the real exam room.

" Sensei!" said Naruto, smiling. " What are you doing here?"

" Checking up on you." replied Kakashi. " I'll take your forms. I've got to reveal my first little bit of deception. Had one of you opted not to take the exam, the others couldn't either."

" That's stupid." said Naruto. " We're all gonna pass. Why wouldn't we take it?"

" Glad your confident. You three ready for anything?" asked Kakashi.

" I've got explosives, medical kits, pens, paper…"

" Sakura, we know that you have the supplies for anything." sighed Kakashi. " But are you mentally ready?"

" Will it be harder than fighting Zabuza?" asked Sasuke. Kakashi nodded no. " Then we're ready."

" Good luck." said Kakashi, opening the door.

Now, the genin had known they were going to have competition. They had expected a few groups. But as they walked into the room, they found themselves face to face with nearly a hundred people, most of which looked tougher and more experienced. Sakura found herself shaking nervously as they stared at her.

" What is this?" she asked her teammates. " Most of these people aren't from our village."

" Oh, forehead girl!"

Sakura turned to find Ino and her team walking over. " I hear Sasuke-kun took you on the worst date ever." said the blonde girl with a smirk.

" But he did take me on one." grumbled Sakura, causing a vein on Ino's forehead to bulge.

" Your team came too?" sighed Shikamaru. " That's troublesome."

" Looks like the gangs all here." said Kiba with a barking laugh, walking over. Shino was standing at his side, looming over them all as usual, and Hinata was hiding behind him. Akamaru, of course, was on his head. " I was hoping I'd get a chance to kick some ass, and looks like I'm going to get it. We've been training hard for this."

" We've been doing A rank missions." said Sasuke, countering.

" R-really?" asked Hinata, peeking out.

" Yeah!" said Naruto loudly. " We fought this dude with this giant sword and this transvestite with all these needles!"

Now, Naruto was infamously loud. And that was when he was talking quietly. As one would imagine, in a crowded room, his voice tended to dominate. No matter where they were, every genin in the room now knew that the blonde kid in the orange jacket had fought a 'transvestite with needles'.

They all began to laugh at him.

" What's with them?" said Naruto, looking up.

" You just made a baka of yourself again." said Ino with a fake sigh. " It's not like you can help it. What's the point of you being here, anyways? You were the worst student in our year, your just going to fail."

" Want a bowl of ramen?" asked Naruto with a smirk.

" Yes. Beef please." replied Choji. Naruto smirked. He'd made sure his favorite ramen stand had forty seals on it, just so he could teleport to it whenever he needed something to eat. He'd equipped his bathroom in a similar manner, due to his bowel troubles, but he didn't mention that one." Why do you…."

Choji never finished his sentence. Everyone was stunned as Naruto vanished in a flash of light. Sakura sighed and leaned against the wall, secretly taking out one of the paper seals that Naruto had given her and Sasuke. A few moments later Naruto reappeared with two bowls of ramen.

" One for you and one for me." said Naruto, handing one to Choji, who gave him a thankful nod.

" How'd….you…." said Kiba, stunned.

" I can get anywhere instantly." lied Naruto, exaggerating his ability. " Don't matter where or how far. That's just how my jutsu works." Sasuke and Sakura resisted the urge to roll their eyes. _At least people don't really know how it works. _thought Sakura.

" So, its some sort of speed boost?" asked Kiba. " Right?"

A short distance away, Team Guy was having a hushed conversation.

" I knew it when I saw the kunai." whispered Tenten. " It's one of Kohona's most famous weapons. I think that kid is the son of the Yellow Flash."

" Why would they allow him to stay in the village?" asked Lee, looking troubled. " His father-"

" The Hokage is very lenient." said Neji, inspecting the genin around the blonde. He had his eye on the Uchiha, who he had heard was quite strong. " No matter what his father did, he would not banished the boy."

" I also recognize the cloak." said Tenten. " The symbol on the back is for a clan called the Uzamaki. They were a Whirlpool country clan which fought against the others during the war. They don't have any special bloodline, but they were renowned for their unusual chakra supplies."

" He will be a worthy opponent!" said Lee excitedly.

" Don't get hit by the kunai." said Tenten with a nod. " It'll cut though you like you weren't even there."

Meanwhile, Naruto and Kiba were yelling at each other. Both were hotheads and braggarts, so it often happened. It would have gone on for a while had Hinata not interrupted.

" N-n-Naruto?" she said quietly.

" What? Oh, hi Hinata-chan! I didn't see you!" said Naruto, his attention shifting to her.

" I-I…I…." Hinata was struggling. She had to say it! She had to tell him! If she couldn't do this, she'd never be able to tell him she loved him! " I w-would like s-some ramen too."

" Okay!" said Naruto, smiling widely. " I'll be…"

" Naruto, don't overuse your jutsu." warned Sakura.

" But…Hinata-chan…." said Naruto, looking crestfallen. He turned back to Hinata. " Sorry. You can have the rest of my bowl if you want." he offered.

" Naruto!" said Sakura, slapping him. " Don't-"

" T-thank you." stammered Hinata, taking the bowl and blushing.

" To your seats!" said a tall man in a black uniform, striding in with a number of grey clothed examiners. The genin raced to their seats. Hinata was glad for this distraction, since she would have been embarrassed had anyone noticed how deep she was blushing as she at the ramen.

Why was she blushing? Well, the chopsticks had been on Naruto's lips…..and they were now on hers….so it was, to her mind, like a indirect kiss.

She nearly fainted at the thought.

" Hi, Hinata-chan!"

She turned to her left, eyes wide. Naruto was sitting besides her. She did what any responsible fan girl would. She fainted into the ramen.

" Hinata-chan!" said Naruto in concern, helping her out of the broth.

00000000

" What was the point of the test then?" shouted the girl from the sand village..

" The point of the test was to weed out those unworthy to answer the final question!" said Ibiki with a belly laugh.

" So….what now?" asked Naruto. As if on cue the window broke and a woman flew in, landing gracefully.

" I am Anko, the examiner for the next exam!" said the scantily clad woman, pointing upwards. " At nine o' clock tomorrow, you are to report to the forest of death!"

" Yes!" said Naruto, jumping up onto the desk. " We get to go to the forest of death! Awesome! Whoooo! Whoooo!"

" Damn right!" said Anko, high fiveing the enthusiastic boy. Everyone watched in as the spectacle unfolded. " But you do know that it's the little boys that die first." she said, licking her lips. " I wonder how sweet your blood tastes."

" Like you'll ever find out." said Naruto with a smirk, vanishing.

" Woah." said Anko, blinking. " Hey, Ibiki, that was…."

" Yes." said the torture specialist, nodding.

" Geez. He's in this group?" said Anko, looking out. " Good luck, everyone." said Anko, shaking her head as she walked towards the door. " Your seriously going to need it."

0000000

Save for Guy's team, Sakura, and Sasuke, the genin all left very confused.

" That loud blonde kid must be dangerous." said Temari. She was rather uncomfortable due to the prescence of her younger brother, Gaara, but tried not to show it.

" How bad could he be?" said Kankuro, hefting the puppet on his shoulder. Temari knew that that movement was a sign he was nervous.

" Well, he's got some sort of teleportation jutsu." said Temari, talking it out. " It's probably just high speed movement, but who knows? And the girl on the Byakugan user's team was talking about some kunai that that guy had."

" Who?"

Kankuro and Temari looked up. The small boy in the orange jacket was standing in front of them, eating a bowl of ramen.

" Hey, sorry." he said with a grin. " You guy's are in the exam, right? I thought I'd introduce myself! I'm Naruto Uzamaki!"

" Temari of the Desert." said Temari, taking the lead. Gaara, being Gaara, was very poor at diplomatic relations and Kankuro was very impatient with kids. That left her to talk with the strange genin. " You sure you want to be talking to people from another village?"

" Well, as clan leader of the Uzamaki, I need to establish diplomatic ties." said Naruto, taking a bite of ramen. Temari and Kankuro looked to each other, thinking the same thing. _Clan leader?_ " I'm not really sure who you guys are, but I figure it's worth a shot. Plus, you were here."

" Where else would we be?" said Gaara. _Not good!_ thought Kankuro.

" Umm….over there…..or over there…." said Naruto, pointing down other streets. " The ramen stand….uh….the hospital….did I say the ramen stand?"

" Yes." said Gaara stoically. " You are the leader of your clan?"

" Yep!" said Naruto, taking a pose.

" Then you must be very strong. I shall enjoy defeating you in the exams." said Gaara, walking onwards.

" Hey!" said Naruto, watching him leave. " Where's he going?" he asked the two relieved sand genin.

" Not sure.' said Temari with a forced smile. " Our brother tends to do what he wants to."

" You three are all related?" said Naruto, looking surprised. " That's really weird! And why do you have a cat hat? And what's with the giant fan? Why did that guy have a gourd on his back? Do you two like ramen?"

" Shut it." said Kankuro becoming aggravated. " I don't care if your some spoiled brat who's got his own clan-"

" Oh no." said Naruto, taking a bite of ramen. " I'm the last Uzamaki left."

Temari and Kankuro faceplanted on the ground.

" Then how can you say you're the clan leader?" said Temari, standing up.

" 'Cause my mom was." said Naruto.

" Not your dad?" said Kankuro, sounding a little surprised.

" Nah." said Naruto, frowning.

" That bother you?" said Temari as Angry Woman Mode turned on. " Don't you think a woman can do as good a job as a man?"

" Well duh." said Naruto, not intimidated. He'd grown up with Sakura, after all. " I just don't like my dad."

" He a loser?" said Kankuro, trying to insult the boy a little.

" Nah. Just a bastard traitor who ruined a lot of peoples lives." said Naruto, looking down at the ramen. " Hey, I don't want this anymore. Either of you want it?"

" No." said Temari. _This kid is a freak._ she thought.

" Hey, Hinata-chan, do you want it?" he called out towards a tree. There was a squeak and the other Byakugan user the Sand Siblings had seen earlir fell out. " Hinata-chan!" he said, running over. The girl seemed to have fainted.

_Never mind, all the Leaf ninja are freaks._ thought Temari, shaking her head as she walked away.

0000000

" There he is, Orochimaru-sama." said Kabuto, adjusting his glassed. He and the disguised Sannin were watching Naruto from a distance.

" Minato-kun's little boy." said Orochimaru with a evil chuckle. " The sole inheritor of his genetics."

" And a Uzamaki." said Kabuto with a smirk. " Naturally huge chakra reserves coupled with an advanced time/space jutsu that requires a bloodline. He'll make a fine body for you." he said.

" He will indeed." said Orochimaru, licking his lips. " Let's hope he lives though the seal. If he doesn't, we've lost something that will be hard to replace."


	6. Chapter 6

" Cool." said Naruto, looking up at the dark and foreboding face with his maniac grin. " This is going to be awesome!"

" We don't even know what were doing." said Sakura, nervous in the presence of the strange forest.

" Fights." said Sasuke with certainty. " First, they get rid of the dumb ones, then the weak ones. Of course, Naruto's still here….."

" That's a good point, Sasuke-kun." said Sakura as Naruto began to swear obscenely. " I'm glad I packed my full kit."

" What do you have?" asked Sasuke as the examiner walked towards the assembled genin.

" Everything and more." said Sakura proudly. " I've got a new type of explosive tag."

" Your so awesome and smart, Sakura-chan!" said Naruto, fawning over her. " What does it do?"

" I don't want to say while we can be overheard." said Sakura, looking to the other groups.

" Damn." swore Ino. As a Yamanaka she had highly developed spying skills. Though originally for rumors and gossip, it helped them as a ninja as well. Sakura smirked as the blonde girl frowned. _Got you, Ino-pig._

" Welcome to the forest of death!" said Anko cheerily. " You ready to die? Because your gonna! The forest has traps, monster, and you'll be fighting the other teams! Yep, this is where we get the casualties."

" Why are we fighting?" asked Shikamaru.

" For these." said Anko, taking out the scrolls. " Each team gets either a Heaven or Earth scroll. You've got to beat one of the other teams, get to the central tower, and present one of each scroll within five days."

" B-but what about lunch?" said Choji, horrified. " And dinner? And tomorrows breakfast?"

" Scrounge." said Anko, sticking out her tongue. " The monsters are sometimes edible and I think I saw a mushroom that wasn't poisonous in there once. I hope you guys are ready."

" Heh. This will be easy." said Naruto with a smirk.

" We have to be careful, Naruto." said Sakura as they got their Heaven scroll. " We have to ration our food and water-"

" Or I could just teleport out and get some." Naruto pointed out.

" That's a good point." said Sakura, blinking. " That gives us a huge advantage. Hey, can people teleport with you?"

" Don't know." said Naruto, scratching his head. " I don't think it's a good idea, though. It's hard enough teleporting just me and my stuff."

" We may need to find out." said Sasuke, looking at the gate they were to enter though.

000000

After the starting signal, they raced into the forest. The huge trees seemed to get thicker as they went in, making the area cramped.

" If we fight, we'll probably have to use the tree climbing technique so we have room." said Sasuke, gazing up. " Sakura, make sure you don't hit us with a explosive tag."

" I won't, Sasuke-kun." said Sakura determinedly. " What's out plan?"

" Just scout out for-!"

A blast of wind cut Sasuke off as it slammed into them. Sasuke was thrown back into a tree where he hit the bark hard enough to splinter it. Sakura was hit while in mid-jump and vanished into the trees, while Naruto tumbled across the ground a short distance.

" That was easy." said a voice. Naruto jumped up and spotted three genin in sound village uniforms walking out of the bushes. " I thought you were supposed to be good." said the leader, who had a bandaged face.

Not bothering to wait, Naruto focused a burst of chakra into his teleportation kunai and threw it. The sound leader barely blocked it with a metal section of his arm, and a moment later Naruto teleported over and kicked the boy in the head. As he toppled into a bush Naruto slashed at the teams kunochi, but she blocked with a kunai. They struggled for a moment, but then the teleportation kunai cut through the steel of the kunochi's weapon. She leapt back as the other boy pointed his palms at Naruto.

The attack was not finished, thanks to the arrival of Sasuke's foot on the boy's face.

" Where's Sakura?" he asked, landing. The kunochi drew two senbon with bells on them.

" She-!"

Naruto didn't finish. The kunochi had thrown the senbon at Sasuke and Naruto, who had dodged, but a moment later their bodies stopped moving.

" Got you. Zaku, Dosu, you alive?" said the woman, pulling the senbon and bells back. _Genjutsu!_ thought Sasuke in alarm.

" Yeah." said the sound teams leader, walking from the bushes. " Kids fast."

" I got them, thought." said the girl with a smirk. " So, do we just kill them right away?"

" Seems like the best option." said the bandaged genin as he helped his teammate up. " That way they can't escape."

Sasuke finally stilled his chakra, breaking the jutsu. He wasted no time in kicking Naruto, freeing him from the paralysis. As the sound ninja began to react Sasuke launched a fireball at them, scattering in three directions.

With a nod Sasuke and Naruto began their attack.

Since they knew the kunochi was a genjutsu user, Naruto attacked her first. She dodged his attack this time, aiming a kick at him. He rolled under and came up behind. While she was a talented genjutsu user, her taijutsu was rather poor.

" Got her!" said Naruto, twisting her arm behind and putting the kunai to her throat in a textbook hold. Sasuke was standing between them and the other two genin. " You guy's surrender!"

The boy with the bandages nodded once and the other genin put his palms up again. A blast of wind fired out of them, right towards Naruto and his prisoner. _She's on their team? What the crap?_ thought Naruto teleporting away. He knew Sasuke would be okay for a moment, so he decided to check on Sakura using a paper seal. Preparing for his return, he threw his teleportation kunai at a tree.

When he appeared, he found her crawling from the smoking carcass of a giant snake.

" Ew." she said, wiping slime from her cheek.

" Sakura-chan, you okay?" he asked as there was the sound of a explosion from where the fight was happening.

" Mostly. Where's Sasuke-kun?" she asked, concerned.

" Fighting. I gotta go help him." Naruto said before teleporting back.

The sound genin had to be good. The genjutsu girl seemed to have survived and the boy with the wind arms was keeping Sasuke at bay. When Naruto appeared the leader with the strange arm lunged towards him.

Naruto met the leap in mid air, scraping the strange metal arm piece with his teleportation kunai. Naruto kicked off and launched the boy upwards, threw his kunai above him, and teleported behind. He put his kunai to the boy's throat in as they began to fall, sticking a paper scroll to his back just in case.

He would have been able to slam the guy into the ground had a blast of wind not knocked him off.

" Dosu!" yelled the wind user as the sound leader landed clumsily.

" I'm fine!" shouted Dosu. A moment later he parried a kick from Sasuke and swung a punch. Sasuke dodged back, but a ringing sound filled the air. " Got you, Uchiha." said Dosu as Sasuke collapsed.

" What did you do?" growled Naruto, looking for his kunai. It had landed near him, but he couldn't see it.

" I use sound to augment my attacks." said Dosu. " He'll be fine….eventually. That is, if we weren't going to kill him once you were dead. Zaku, Kin, stay back. I'll take this kid. I've got his jutst figured out. If he doesn't have that kunai, he can't teleport."

" Got it." said Zaku. " Watch-"

He was cut off by a hail of shuriken.

" Who the hell shot me with that wind thing!" shouted Sakura, leaping into the fight and drawing her explosive kunai.

" That would be me." said Zaku with a smirk. " Kin, you want this one?"

" Sure. I like taking down useless pretty girls." said Kin, walking forwards and taking out the bells.

" Sakura, she uses gen-!"

Naruto was cut off as Dosu drove a punch into his stomach. He managed to avoid vomiting, but he could feel the punch did more damage than normal. It was like every part of his body had begun to hurt at once.

" Keep your eye on your enemy." said Dosu, cocking his fist for another punch. As he swung forward Naruto vanished, teleporting onto the boys back. Naruto caught him in a choke hold and head butted the boy from behind.

Meanwhile, Sakura was making short work of the forest. She'd heard enough of Naruto's warning to understand genjutsu, which she already knew how to break. Both Zaku and Kin were having trouble with the explosive kunai and wire guided shuriken.

" Dosu!" cried Zaku as the sound leader fell to the side. Naruto, the physical embodiment of stamina that he was, was already recovering from the sound attack. He'd found his kunai and was scrambling towards the dazed Dosu. Zaku began to fire a wind blast at Naruto but was stopped when Sasuke, who had forced himself to his feet, slammed a knee into Zaku's stomach.

" So, what was that about useless?" taunted Sakura as she detonated a explosive tag. Kin dodged away, quickly putting out a spark that had lodged in her hair. The sound kunochi just scowled and threw her bell senbon. Sakura didn't bother to dodge very far, stilling her chakra in advance as she closed to close quarters.

" Yaaa!" shouted Naruto, punching into Dosu again. The bigger genin had been staggered by Naruto's furious assault, but recovered and brought down his fist on Naruto's shoulder. A crackling pop revealed it had been a good hit, but his proximity allowed Naruto to slice him twice with the jagged kunai, opening several bad wounds.

" Damn!" muttered Dosu, kicking Naruto away. " We need to retreat!" he shouted, holding his shirt to a cut on his side.

" I can take him!" shouted Zaku, who was randomly firing wind cutters at Sasuke. With his Sharingan active Sasuke was having no trouble avoiding the attacks, simply biding his time until his opponent ran out of chakra.

" I'm out!" shouted Kin, performing a hand seal and vanishing in a swirl of leaves as Sakura leapt at her.

" Zaku, now!" shouted Dosu, leaping onto a low branch.

" Fine! But I'll get you later!" the wind user shouted at Sasuke as his team retreated.

" After them!" shouted Naruto. The leaf ninja had just started to follow when a single opponent landed before them.

" You should forget about them." said a strange looking female grass ninja. She was wearing a purple rope as a belt and had a strangely wide mouth. " Your opponent is now me."

" Out of my-!"

Naruto fell silent as something stopped him. A aura seemed to be radiating from the kunochi, paralyzing him. Sasuke and Sakura had been affected as well.

" Tell me." said the kunochi, walking forwards. " How is the youngest Namizake doing?"

" U-uz…uz…." stammered Naruto. He was trying to say 'Uzamaki', but each time he did, he suddenly saw himself dying. It was like seeing a dream while awake.

" I'd rather expected you to be able to escape." said the kunochi, sounding disappointed. " You don't exactly live up to your father's standards, do you?"

" Mother." Naruto managed to mumble.

" What? Mother? Oh, I see." said the woman with a laugh. " You want to be like your mother. Kushina, wasn't it? How pathetic. But, I can see how you might see a woman who sacrificed her clan to save your village as a role model."

" Who are you?" said Sasuke, standing up. He'd stabbed himself in the leg, breaking the fear.

" Orochimaru." said the woman with a laugh. " Sasuke Uchiha. Itachi sends his regards."

" You know my brother?" said Sasuke, shakily. He had drawn two shuriken.

" Oh, we met a few times." said Orochimaru. " I know what your going to do. Get it over with."

Sasuke threw the shuriken, which scratched Naruto and Sakura's arms lightly, just enough to cause the pain necessary to break the genjutsu.

" Dammit." said Naruto, stretching. " So, want to kick this guy's ass?" he said, no fear on his voice.

" He's above out level." said Sasuke shakily. " W-we can't take him."

" We should run." said Sakura, agreeing.

" They are right, Naruto-kun." said Orochimaru. " But I could still catch you. I'll make you a offer. You stay and fight me, I'll let them go. If you entertain me, I'll let them live. If you die, I kill them."

" Got it." said Naruto with a smirk. " Get going."

" N-Naruto!" shouted Sakura. " You can't-"

" I can." said Naruto, drawing out a wad of paper seals. " I've got some new moves I thought up. Even if it works, though, I'm going to be pretty beat up."

" If he stays, I have to." said Sasuke, regaining his composure. " I can't owe him another favor. Sakura, run for it."

" Like hell." said Sakura, drawing a explosive kunai. " I want to die by your side, Sasuke-kun."

"…."

" I'd rather live, though." she said in a deadpan.

" Let's get this started!" shouted Naruto. " Sasuke, fireball his ass!"

Sasuke had already started the jutsu as Naruto and Sakura took off. Orochimaru leapt the burst of flame with ease, then rolled in mid air to duck a explosive kunai Sakura had thrown. She detonated it before he was out of the blast radius, knocking him through the air. He landed acrobatically a second before the teleportation kunai struck besides him. Naruto appeared and released the handful of papers, which fluttered though the air.

" Uzamaki Barrage!" shouted Naruto as Orochimaru swung a punch at him, vanishing just in time. He appeared behind, swinging a kick that Orochimaru reached behind to block. Naruto teleported again, attacking from below with a uppercut. He attacked from every direction seemingly at random, but the Sannin was in no danger.

" This is a dis-!"

Orochimaru had begun to speak as Naruto appeared from below, using a scroll that had landed on the tree branch. He kicked straight up, connecting at the crux of Orochimaru's legs and channeling enough chakra into the hit to knock the kunochi flying.

" Got ya!" said Naruto, leaping to his feet.

" Naruto, kicking a girl there doesn't do anything!" shouted Sasuke as he raced over.

" Yes it does! It's called a cu-"

" Don't finish that sentence." warned Sakura as Orochimaru stood up. _Remarkable._ thought the Sannin, facing Naruto and his teammates. _A real…and damaging hit from a genin. I know I've been improving and that this is a strong body, so he did a good job._ thought the snake ninja.

" Continue like that, Naruto-kun." said Orochimaru. " You've almost sold me on you."

" What does that mean?" asked Sakura.

" Who knows. Take-!"

Naruto was cut off as Orochimaru spat a sword at Sasuke. It moved to fast for him to dodge, even with the Sharingan, but with his bloodline he had enough warning to focus chakra around where the blade hit.

" Sasuke!" shouted Naruto as his friend was thrown back, sword sticking out of him. He struck a tree and stopped. With the focused chakra Sasuke had kept the blade from going too deep in, but as the sword fell out it became obvious the wound was still dangerous.

" You bastard!" shouted Naruto, turning and throwing his kunai. " Sakura, get Sasuke out of here!" he shouted, teleporting over to Orochimaru.

" You can barely use that blade." said Orochimaru, ducking a slash and delivering a kick to Naruto. " But you've mastered the teleportation jutsu. You're a interesting boy."

" Shut up!" shouted Naruto, attacking furiously. No matter what he did, Orochimaru could not be hit. Every attack was parried and counterattacked, and Naruto was soon reduced to a bloody wreck. As he struggled to his feet, he could see Sakura returning.

" You are strong, at least." said Orochimaru, smiling. " Your endurance does mark you as a Uzamaki."

" Shut up." puffed Naruto, holding his kunai. His hand felt weak and he knew he had a broken finger. But his other arm was still not moving well from the hit the sound genin had given him.

" You have one last chance to impress me or your cute little teammate dies." said Orochimaru, picking up his sword.

_I can't hold anything back._ thought Naruto, channeling chakra into the kunai. He knew that this made the weapon sharper, but that wasn't helping. Still, it helped him focus against the pain. _She knows how my jutsu works, so I can't use that….but my taijutsu is way below hers. I can't teleport over….I can't attack head on…._

…_.unless I do both._

" Yaaaa!" shouted Naruto, forcing chakra though his body at dangerous levels. He hurled the glowing kunai as he shot forward, the force of his enhanced leap creating a shockwave. Orochimaru parried the kunai, but he had underestimated the power behind the attack. His sword arm was knocked off balance and he was forced to shift his feet so he didn't fall. This gave Naruto the chance he needed.

Naruto, like any Uzamaki, had unreasonable amounts of chakra. He'd always used more than a normal person in the chakra focusing technique, but the burst he had used was more than any normal ninja could have produced, and more than the young boys body could safely take. He could feel his muscles tearing and bones creaking as he slammed a punch into Orochimaru's face, knocking the grass ninja flying forty feet into a tree, a crater forming in the bark as he struck. Naruto tumbled though the dirt, strained beyond reason, as he rolled to the base of the tree.

" Good." said Orochimaru, stepping out of the tree and popping his head into place. " You've done well. I'll let your friends live."

" Get away from him!" shouted Sakura, rushing over as Orochimaru advanced.

" Quiet, you silly girl." said Orochimaru, glaring at her. She felt the wave of terror she had felt before and was paralyzed. She watched in horror as Orochimaru picked up Naruto and bit him on the neck. Naruto's scream was inhuman, echoing though the trees for what seemed like hours. Sakura was suddenly able to move again as Orochimaru turned to her and threw Naruto at her. She managed to catch her teammate safely.

" Do try and keep him alive." said Orochimaru, smiling as he vanished.

Sakura ran with Naruto in her arms. She could feel him convulsing in pain as she made her way to the spot she had put Sasuke in. She set Naruto down and looked to the bite mark. To her horror a strange black seal had appeared in the shape of three black dots.

Besides her, Sasuke gave a sputtering cough as he regained consciousness.

" Sasuke-kun!" said Sakura, turning to him. " Don't move!"

" I won't." he said weakly.

" I'll tend to your wound in a moment, but Naruto's hurt really bad." she said, looking to her friend.

" I'll be fine." said Sasuke, taking out his medical kit. " I stopped it from piercing a organ. I'll take a plasma pill and cauterize…the…"

He trailed off as his head fell to the side.

_I have to keep them alive._ thought Sakura, picking the boys up and hefting them over her shoulders. It was hard, since they were heavier, but she could manage. _Don't you two die on me. I'll get you somewhere safe and treat your wounds. It's my turn to save your lives. _

With that final thought, she set off away from the battleground.


End file.
